


Sightless Eyes

by MisteryMaiden



Category: Naruto
Genre: Blind!Naruto, Team Seven Centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-11
Updated: 2015-04-26
Packaged: 2018-01-15 08:41:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 30,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1298569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MisteryMaiden/pseuds/MisteryMaiden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurama has been able to heal almost every wound that Naruto has ever received, but even the all powerful demon can't heal everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Team Seven

Yep, everyone was officially way too stupid for their own good. Not many people would agree, but Uzumaki Naruto knew he was right. I mean, how else would they not know that one of the new genin and a long time prankster as well as an Academy student was, and had been, blind since age four?

Naruto smirked as he sat in his usual seat next to Uchiha Sasuke, the biggest prick in the world. He had finally been able to pass the genin exam, although he didn't complete it the normal way. Being who he was, he had managed it by defeating that traitorous Mizuki.

It hadn't been easy, acting like he was able to see; when to those who really looked it was obvious he could not. Only the Hokage was aware of his disability, and Naruto planned to keep it that way. The blond genin saw no reason for his to give up his secret after so many years of lying about it, training himself to be able to react like a both a person with and without sight.

Not even Iruka-sensei knew about his lack of eye sight, which would make him one of the most skilled people out there, and not the dobe.

Naruto was dragged from his thoughts as a loud screech directed at him tore at his sensitive ears. "NARUTO! I want to sit next to Sasuke-kun, so MOVE!"

' _Fucking banshee, go bark up another tree, I don't care.'_ Naruto growled to himself, but for the sake of his sanity, he only ignored her. Being blind was one secret he would most likely never give up, but that hyperactive mask he had developed to protect himself? That could go.

The graduating genin merely stared at the silent, not hyper, and absolutely not smiling boy. It was like a complete personality change from what he had been only yesterday.

"Troublesome. Finally decided to act like yourself, eh, Naruto?" Shikamaru asked, not even raising his head from the desk it was on.

"Yep, I got bored with acting. It also got annoying when the only ones who noticed were you and Iruka-sensei. I mean, come on, no one is that happy and hyper all of the time!" Naruto whined, still a little put out by the only two people who noticed. After all, no one in the village had. The Sandaime knew, obviously (he knew about him being blind, so he definitely knew about his mask), since he had encouraged it in the very beginning.

"Really? That's just sad." Shikamaru sighed. "I would have thought someone would question how you seemed to always ace the written and taijutsu part of the genin exam if you were really an idiot. It was common knowledge that you were only helpless at the Bunshin no Jutsu."

Naruto watched in amusement as all of the other graduates smacked their heads into their respective desks. "Yep, they feel stupid, alright. Best prank ever." Shikamaru nodded in agreement, while Sasuke stared at the supposed dobe in absolute shock.

" _I was only joking."_  That had been the dobe's favorite response when he had done something wrong. And come to think about it, he had never used that excuse when doing the Bunshin.  _'How in the world did I miss that? Aren't I supposed to be the prodigy here? How was Shikamaru able to notice and not me?'_ That didn't sit well with the last Uchiha. He was the one who was supposed to be the rookie of the year, not Shikamaru, who seemed to notice more than he did. No, it must have been a mistake, a chance happening. After all, there was no way that lazy Nara Shikamaru was smarter than him.

"Calm down, class! It's time to announce the team assignments." Iruka called over the excited talking of the new genin. Instantly, they were all quiet, much to the teachers' surprise. It usually took much more to get them all quiet. Hmmm. Maybe it was the promise of no more Academies and the new life of a ninja? Oh, well, they were all in for a surprise, now weren't they?

"Team 1: Hakumi Mendo, Kinsumo Ami, and Kamimo Konku. Team 2: Kumo Hami-" Naruto tuned the scared teacher out, not caring about the other teams, mostly only wanting to know which team he would be on. Hopefully, it would have neither the Uchiha nor the Haruno (her mother was on the council, and the council hated Naruto with a passion).

"Team 7: Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto's head snapped to attention at his name. "Haruno Sakura," here, Naruto felt like banging his head against a wall. "And Uchiha Sasuke," Naruto was now positive that life hated him with a vengeance. He was teammates with both of the people he had wished to never see again. Hopefully, they weren't stupid as well.

"Why do I have to be on a team with Naruto-baka?" Sakura whined, clearly only unhappy with one of her new teammates.

"Hey, teme," Naruto whispered, getting Sasuke's attention. "I say as soon as the bell for lunch rings, we make a break for it. I can distract her, while you run."

"Why would you care?" Sasuke eyed the blonde in suspicion, Naruto could practically feel the gaze, and for not the first time, wondered what the Uchiha really looked like.

"Because, you're my new teammate, and I should get into the habit of helping you escape the females of your fan clubs. As for the males, you're on your own there." Naruto hissed back, he could feel the glares of all of the fangirls on his back. Thankfully, there were no fanboys in this class.

"I can live with that." The Uchiha was not too proud to turn down help from someone who could get him away from his terrifying fan club. Really, who was that obsessed with one person that much? Because that was what it was, an obsession.

Iruka had just finished the team announcements when the bell rang, signaling it was time for lunch. In a flash, Naruto replaced both himself and Sasuke with two Kage Bunshins', one henged as Sasuke.

They both appeared on the roof of the academy, the Sasuke Bunshin running like crazy from the terror of the fangirls.

"Nice job, for a dobe." Naruto narrowed his eyes at the comment, vaguely noting that Sasuke had moved over by what Naruto thought was one of the benches. He wasn't sure, it was harder to tell object apart than it was to tell people apart by their chakra.

"I thought we'd established that that was actually an act. I'm not really that stupid, but it was easier, and more fun, to act like I was." Naruto replied, making sure that he was 'looking' right were Sasuke was supposed to be.

"Yeah, but why would you go through all that trouble?" Sasuke asked, noting that he didn't usually speak this much to a single person in a month. The blonde was an acception apparently.

"That's easy to answer. I did it for practice. If we're sent on infiltration missions, we need to be able to act like completely different people to fool whoever it is we're trying to fool. What better way to practice than in your own village where people know you?" Naruto could almost imagine the gape on the stoic Uchiha's face. It would be easier if he knew what Sasuke looked like, though.

"You really aren't a dobe." Sasuke said, looking at him in stunned disbelief. "Why can't you do Bunshin no Jutsu, then?"

"I've got too much chakra. For me to even have a slim chance, I would need perfect chakra control. I don't have perfect chakra control, so it's impossible for me at this moment in time." Naruto answered, feeling Sasuke's chakra signature move, he made his eyes follow its movement, as if he was watching the Uchiha.

"What about your taijutsu, it's not really the academies stile, is it?" Sasuke turned to look in the blonde's eyes, daring him to lie.

"Not all orphans have the privilege of living in the orphanage." Naruto replied dryly. He could feel the challenging look turn into a surprised one. "You learn how to defend yourself fast, or you die of starvation because the older orphans have beaten you and taken your food. There are more of us than you'd think on the streets. The Kyuubi attack left a lot of orphans, and the orphanage can't take them all."

"Then why doesn't the Hokage do anything about it?" Sasuke growled. He may have been an orphan as well, but he had an entire empty compound to himself.

"What?" Naruto asked, slightly bitter. He was one of the unlucky ones. Kicked out of the orphanage, blinded at a young age, and left on the streets to fend for himself. He'd been forced to learn how to not only defend himself at a young age, but to also act like he had no disability so he could be entered into the academy and become a ninja, the only job he had a chance at getting. No one else would have hired him. "There's no other place for the orphans. We get a small allowance from the orphanage, but otherwise, you fend for yourself. If you save up long enough, you can get a small apartment, but that's it. After age five, you're on your own."

"Shit, are you serious?" Sasuke whispered, he didn't care that his stoic façade had been dropped, this wasn't anytime for pretenses.

"For some, it's age four. Depends on whether or not people like you. The lucky ones can get to stay until age seven or eight, giving them more than enough time to raise enough money for an apartment." Naruto kept his sightless eyes on the Uchiha. "You fight, or you die. It's almost impossible to live off of the small fond from the orphanage, but people don't like to hire orphans. Most strive to become ninja out of desperation. We have enough fighting experience, so why not?"

"Is that why you became a ninja?" Sasuke asked, for once honestly intrigued by the blonde.

"Yep, that and Jiji inspired me to. Jiji and the other orphans are one of the reasons I want to become Hokage. I want to change the way the orphanage is run, and up the wages given to orphan that live on their own. Not one of them would live on the streets. If another orphanage was built, there wouldn't be any need for them to be kicked out at such a young age."  _'Or to be blinded by an angry mob,'_  Naruto thought wistfully.

"That's not really a bad reason. We all just though you wanted to prove you were strong enough to do it." Sasuke frowned. The class had assumed way too much about the young blonde ninja.

"I know, but now you know that that's not exactly true, don't you?" Naruto shrugged.

Sasuke was about to say something as the bell rang, calling for the end of lunch. Naruto formed a hand sign and released the Bunshin. Their memories came flooding back to him. "Man, those girls are terrifying." Naruto muttered, walking back down the stairs the classroom.

"You have no idea." Sasuke shuddered, images of many, many fangirls chasing him all over the village flashing to the front of him mind.

As they entered the classroom to wait for their new sensei, Sasuke pondered what he had learned about the blonde. They knew he wasn't a hyperactive idiot now, but he hadn't expected the reason that the blonde strived to be Hokage. They weren't selfish at all. He could only wonder what the other reasons were.

Naruto on the other hand, was wondering if he told the spoilt Uchiha too much. Yes, the Uchiha was a fellow orphan, but he didn't know how bad all the other's had it. He was one of the lucky ones, that Naruto so envied. He'd never had to spend a day in the orphanage or on the streets. The villagers loved him, and would have easily given him a job. The Uchiha had it made as it was, everyone expected him to be a ninja, and no one would purposely sabotage him.

Sakura was unnerved as they sat there for three hours in complete silence waiting for their sensei to show up. It was even worse with Naruto no longer acting and that just added to the situation. Sakura wasn't sure if she liked this Naruto or not. This confused her since she was always wishing the hyperactive blonde would be a little more serious. To hear it was all an act for years was unnerving, to say the least. In short, Sakura had no idea what to think.

Finally Naruto moved. Standing up, Naruto went over to the chalk board, and picked up a chalk eraser. Tying a long piece of string to it, the blonde slid open the door just enough to fit the chalk eraser in. Moving over to the ceiling Naruto tied the string to a small hook that was used for the plants they had once had in the class. Sitting back down the blonde nodded, apparently satisfied with himself.

"What did you do?" Sakura asked, wanting to know what that was about. Sasuke was also looking at the blonde.

Naruto smirked and shrugged. It had taken him a long time to locate the hook and he was a little exhausted mentally. It wasn't easy focusing your chakra to work like a bats echolocation, but it worked, and it also built up chakra control as well. He could identify what the object was as well, even if he had never heard of it before, he was able to tell what shape it was in. It made being a ninja just that much easier for him. If he was right, he would be able to find enemies quite easily and be able to warn his team and sensei about them as well. Naruto had yet to come up with a name for his jutsu yet, but he was working on it. Hmmm. Maybe something to do with bats? Learning about them was how he was inspired to work on the jutsu after all.

Only a few minutes later, a tall man with a large amount of chakra in him right eye walked in. Naruto raised an eyebrow. Why'd he have that much chakra in an eye? Maybe he had a doujutsu; Naruto had heard that they required a large amount of chakra to even work.

As the door slid open the eraser smacked the man in the head, causing him to curse, and swung forward, before swing backwards with more force, and smacking the jounin in the eye with the less chakra. Naruto snickered as the poor man cursed even louder.

"My first impression is: I hate you." The man growled, holding a hand to his eye.

Sakura turned to Naruto, "How'd you know that he was going to be that tall?"

The blonde only smiled at her. "All the other jounin were, so why not him as well?"

The man broke into their conversation. "Meet me on the roof, and we'll begin." The man said before his chakra flared and he vanished.

Naruto sighed, waiting for Sasuke and Sakura to leave the room, before opening a window, focusing chakra to his hands, and climbing up the wall. Once on the roof, Naruto took a seat on the bench and watched as both Sakura and Sasuke came through the door and gaped at the blonde. Naruto just smirked and waved at them; ignoring the look he felt his new sensei give him. Hey, he had to practice chakra control before using his jutsu to sense things.

"Now that we're all here, why don't we introduce ourselves? I'll go first. My name in Hatake Kakashi. I like things, and I dislike things. I have many hobbies. Dreams for the future? I don't think I'll tell you. Now you, blondie."

Naruto scowled at the jounin.(At least, he hope that was the jounin and not one of his teammates). "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen, plants, and pranks. I dislike people who judge others, and people that don't bother to get to know a person before assuming there isn't anything more to know about them than what they see. My hobbies include playing pranks and training. My dream is to become the Hokage."

"Pinkie."

Sakura glared at her teacher. "My name is Haruno Sakura, and I like *squeal* and I dislike Naruto-baka." Here Naruto looked in her direction in surprise, what'd he ever do to her? "My hobbies are *squeal, glance at Sasuke* and my dream is *squeal, blush, glance at Sasuke*"

' _Oh great, a fangirl on her idols' team. Just what I always wanted.'_  Kakashi thought sarcastically. "The Brooding one, it's your turn."

Sasuke glanced at his sensei. Well if his sensei didn't have to tell him anything, why did he? "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. The rest is none of you concern."

Kakashi sighed. This was going to be one fun test tomorrow. "Meet me at training ground seven tomorrow, and make sure that you don't eat."

"Why?" Sakura asked, while Naruto promised himself that he was going to eat anyways.

"Because, tomorrow is the final test to become a genin!" Kakashi gave the group a smile. Or Naruto assumed he did from his tone of voice. Vaguely he wondered what his sensei looked like.

"But I thought we were already genin!" Sakura exclaimed, obviously annoyed at the thought of another test.

"Nope. Out of all the teams taking the test, only three will pass." Kakashi's tone was gleeful, as if he enjoyed telling them the bad news. With that, his chakra flared again and vanished.


	2. The Genin Test

Naruto sighed as he waited for his sensei to arrive. He was so bored, it wasn't even funny. Why, oh why, did his sensei insist on arriving late? Naruto had already scanned the area more than once for his sensei, but he wasn't anywhere nearby. The blonde had been the first to arrive, and had taken the liberty to set up traps everywhere. He had made a large amount of exploding tags and flash tags with him. Pranking wasn't just for fun, but it was also a good way to make traps.

"You're here early, Naruto-baka." Sakura's voice came from in front of him. Naruto merely smiled eerily, completely ignoring the baka that had been added to the end of his name.

"You've booby trapped the forest, haven't you?" Sakura sighed, and was inwardly cringing as the eerie grin grew. It looked out of place on the blonde's whiskered face. She wondered why they were there, and if they were real. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing she had ever seen.

"Hn." Sasuke said as he saw his two other teammates already there.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura squealed, and Naruto hid a wince. Her voice hurt, really, really, badly. His ears were way more sensitive than most people's since they were making up for his lack of sight.

"Kakashi-sensei should be here in a few minutes. It's almost been three hours since he told us to meet him." Naruto said, smiling. They had learned from yesterday not to show up until it was three hours after the set time.

"Yo." Kakashi said, appearing in a poof of smoke. "Sorry I'm late, I was helping an old woman carry some groceries. She should stop pestering me and actually hire someone to do it." The last part was muttered. Sasuke and Sakura made no move to indicate they heard, so Naruto kept silent, snickering internally at the man's misfortune.

"Once this timer goes off at noon, the test will end. Until then, your job is to try and steel these to bells from me. Whoever gets a bell, passes. The one without a bell, loses. Understand? Either way, one of you will be going back to the academy." Kakashi had the gleeful tone again, and Naruto narrowed his eyes in the man's direction. Genin teams were always a team of three, making the test impossible, unless…

Naruto smirked. Kakashi said he had to get a bell. He never said he had to keep it. The test was rigged to put them against one another, but they needed each other to get a bell. Naruto moved his sightless eyes to look into what he hoped was the jounin's eyes. Naruto put what he knew was a knowing look into his eyes. He had used them enough when he could see that he had memorized each look people had given him and had learned how to give them back. So far it had worked, and Naruto had prided himself on a job well done. Sarutobi-jiji had once told him it was very creepy, since he knew the blonde couldn't see.

"Start!" Kakashi announced. Naruto felt as Sasuke and Sakura disappeared.

Kakashi stared at him and in what Naruto assumed would be a questioning gaze. He wasn't sure which it was, and as he couldn't find out by looking, he could only go on his assumption. "Why haven't you moved yet, Naruto?" There was amusement in the jounin's voice.

"That's easy. You're not going to test our abilities at all; that was what the exams in the Academy were for. Genin squads are always in threes, which makes this test seem rigged for us to fail. The only way for any of us to get a bell is to work together, but the test is  _worded_  to put us against each other." Naruto sighed. "I don't think either of them would listen to me if I asked to work together, so there's not much point in trying to go to them. I just have to wait for the Uchiha to figure it out and come to me."

Kakashi smiled, so one of had figured it out after all. Teamwork was the point of the test, but almost none of the genin ever understood that, making it annoying to try and pass a team. All the genin that failed the test were sent back to the Academy, or went into another field of work.

"You're a smart genin. Why haven't you passed sooner than this?" Kakashi asked, honestly curious.

"I can't do the damned Bunshin no Jutsu." Naruto scowled. It really was annoying how that jutsu evaded him. "I have way too much chakra for it and always fry the jutsu. Even if I ace the taijutsu and the written parts, if I can't do Bunshin, then I was failed. Finally, I learned another version of it and was allowed to pass."

"Ah, the Kage Bunshin. That would be more suited for your level of chakra. How many can you make?" Kakashi had read that the blonde had learned the Kage Bunshin, but he wasn't privy to the mission report that Iruka had made.

Naruto smirked, "A thousand, maybe more."

Kakashi froze, and stared. The kid was right, he had way, way, way, too much chakra for a regular Bunshin without perfect chakra control.

Naruto hated the feeling of being stared at. He could never tell if it was a good or bad stare. "Will you stop staring at me? I'm not a piece of fucking pottery. I'm not that interesting."

"You are aware that each Kage Bunshin splits your chakra in half over and over again, right?" Kakashi asked, still having trouble comprehending it. If he had been using the Kyuubi, however, it would make more sense.

"Nope, no fuzzy wuzzy involved. That was all me." Naruto said happily. He so wished he could see the look on Kakashi's face at the moment. Sasuke and Sakura were both enjoying the gaping look on their sensei's face, and wondered what the blonde had said to get to look like that. They were too far away to hear anything that well.

"This is fun." Naruto grinned. "I wonder when they'll get the picture that I'm not going to attack you."

Suddenly, Sakura could be heard screaming in the forest. Kakashi frowned, that was odd. Naruto merely shook his head. She had even known he had booby trapped the place. Why hadn't she been careful?

Kakashi looked at Naruto's exasperated look. "You booby trapped the forest."

"Yep, and Sakura just completely failed right there, since she even knew I had and should have been looking out for my traps." Naruto deadpanned in complete annoyance. Kakashi just shook his head, maybe she wasn't the brightest kunoichi of her year after all.

Sasuke sighed, even he had been watching for the dobe's traps. The Uchiha had to say, he didn't want anything that Naruto had come up with coming after him. That was an all-around bad idea, as the blonde's mind terrified him. Completely and utterly terrified him.

Sasuke frowned, Naruto still hadn't attacked Kakashi-sensei. It was almost like he was waiting for something. What was it?  _"Whoever gets a bell, passes."_  There was something about the way he said that… He hadn't said that they had to keep the bell, just get one. A lone genin couldn't take out a jounin, but a squad of them could. Now, to see if Sakura hadn't gotten killed in one of Naruto's traps…

Naruto smirked, watching Sasuke's chakra move from where he sat. He was going towards Sakura's pink chakra. What most people didn't know was that chakra had colors, unique to the person. Some people had the normal color of chakra: blue. But most chakra reflected the person's personality at the point when they developed it. All healing chakra was green, since it was the intent that gave it that gentle color. Blue chakra came from regular shinobi who didn't work much with it, and just left it alone. Civilian chakra was a fuzzy blue from it never being used. Sakura had a bright pink color, while Sasuke's was a startling blood red. Kakashi had a dark orange, almost like fire.

It had taken a long time, but Naruto could identify anyone he knew by their chakra and voice. Not even a voice changing jutsu could fool him, Sarutobi-jiji had already tried. He was working on guessing their emotions at the moment. It was like reading someone's face : it took a lot of practice.

In an unnoticeable flash, Naruto switched with the Bunshin he had made and left in the forest before the exam. It was time to play with the unsuspecting jounin sensei.

* * *

 

"Wow, I thought that Naruto was the dead last of this year?" Asuma asked, looking at his father in a questioning way. Kurenai agreed, the blonde was showing far more skill than the academy had reported he had.

Hiruzen laughed, "Naruto likes to play pranks. He wanted to see how long he could act before the village realized he was pranking all of them."

"What?" Both new sensei's exclaimed. "Damn, Kakashi better hide the kid from Ibiki then." Asuma whistled.

"Keep watching you." Hiruzen said, and returned his attention back to what was happening at Team 7's exam.

!&!&!&!

A quick Kawamiri, and Naruto was back sitting in front of Kakashi. The clone dispelled, giving Naruto the memory of playing tic-tac-toe. Kakashi was x's and he was o's. It was also his turn. Putting a circle in the only spot he needed left, Naruto smirked. "You're really bad at this game, Kakashi-sensei."

The jounin frowned and looked over the game. How could he have lost? This was the tenth game in a row that he'd lost! God damn the brat was good.

Oh, well, a deal was a deal. "Here you go brat." The jounin sighed and handed over a large set of sealing paper. "What do you even want it for?"

"I'm trying to make lightning seals, to go with my explosive seals. I can get the light part, making a large flash, but the stupid things never fucking create lightning. I'm missing a symbol somewhere, and I will find out which one it is!" Naruto growled. "And I can't afford sealing paper now that I no longer have the orphanage fund. I need the genin pay to pay my bills and buy food. But maybe if I bet for sealing paper that would solve my problem. I always seem to win bets." Naruto mused. Seals were easy to make for him, for some reason. Even blind, he could make them pretty well. Probably because he need to be perfect with a brush to write without making it look hard. He couldn't let people realize he couldn't see. He had practiced for hours upon hours to get his writing perfectly straight, and formed, without seeing. His blindness had been a slow process, making it possible for him to prepare to hide it.

An explosion sounded through the forest, and Naruto was gone in an instant at the signal. Kakashi just looked baffled. "What in the world?"

Looking to the blonde, he noticed that Naruto had disappeared. Looking down, Kakashi noticed so had his bells. Damn. When had the brat contacted the others? He hadn't moved the entire time!

Naruto appeared in front of his two teammates and tossed them a bell. "Now it's time to play evade the jounin who is going to come after me pissed in a moment. Make sure you keep the bell!"

All three disappeared, two of them wondering what the blonde meant by pissed. Until they heard the agonized yell of: "My book!"

* * *

 

Asuma, Kurenai, and Gai, who had joined them with his team of Hyuuga Neji, Tenten, and Rock Lee, were laughing insanely. "He stole Ka-Kakashi's b-book?" Gai roared, in laughter, causing his genin to look at him questioningly. "Hatake Kakashi is widely known as Kakashi no Sharingan. He always carries a book in the Icha Icha Paradise series written by Jiarya of the Sannin, and no kunoichi has ever been able to steal it from him, and not for lack of trying. That boy did it without him even realizing. It's the perfect distraction to keep him from going after the others."

"So, the rookie is intelligent? Exceedingly so, to have observed that, and waited for his chance to steal the bells and the book?" Neji asked, positive that this boy had been rookie of the year this year. After all, how could anyone less been able to steal from a jounin?

"Yes, and you'll be surprised to know that Naruto was the dead last of his year." Gai's eyes sparkled at Neji's shocked look.

"How could he have been the dead last?" Neji demanded, ignoring Lee's excited whoop, and Tenten's gasp.

"Ah, Uzumaki Naruto likes to pull pranks. He likes to make people doubt his intelligence and skill, and wanted to practice for infiltration missions, so he invented an alternate persona to show the village, promising to tell everyone once he was a genin. The only reason Naruto didn't graduate before you is because he has too much chakra to do the Bunshin, or any type of genjutsu, the opposite of your teammate Lee. Naruto makes up the handy-cap with his taijutsu and ninjutsu." Hiruzen laughed, the look on Neji's face incredulous.

"Yeah, Naruto likes to also make traps, which I hope the other two remember-" They watched a hurtle of kunai and shuriken attack Kakashi, wrapping him with ninja wire, the kunai wrapped in exploding tags. The Copy Nin's face was pale as they exploded. "Ouch, that's got to hurt. At least they were only level ones." Kurenai sighed. "That's what he gets for telling them to attack with the intent to kill."

Tenten's eyes glowed. "Oh, he used his shuriken as the main weapon to pierce, and the kunai as a distraction! I never thought of that! I have to meet this kid, we can share ideas!" Gai and the rest of his team paled, praying the two never meant. Tenten with more weapon/trap ideas was a very scary idea, and the two sharing ideas was terrifying.

* * *

 

Naruto was laughing as he heard Kakashi curse and a loud explosion. Oh, how he wished he could see what it looked like, but hey, he'd take what he could get. Feeling his watch, Naruto noted that it was five minutes to noon. Oh, how he loved the brail watch Sarutobi-jiji had given him.

"Hah!" A in pain, annoyed, bleeding, Kakashi caught him from behind. Thanking god that he had remembered to make more clones, Naruto switched with the nearest ones. Kakashi hit the boy on the head and watched in near homicidal annoyance as Naruto disappeared in a poof of smoke. Oh, that brat was going to get-

BRING, BRING, BRING, BRING!

"Crap!" Kakashi exclaimed. The exam was over and he still hadn't gotten his book back! Or the bells!

Sighing, he went to meet the team at the memorial stone. Naruto sat there grinning at the jounin. Kakashi was covered head to toe in burns, cuts, and had a very bad head ache. "Never again will I doubt the skill of a genin's traps." Kakashi muttered, just loud enough for the other two the here.

"Just be glad you haven't been pranked by him yet." Sasuke stated. "It's horrible." Sakura nodded in agreement.

Kakashi paled, and sighed. "Can I have my book back yet?"

Naruto grinned, "Do you want the other stuff too?"

"Other stuff?" Kakashi was immediately on alert. There was no way in hell he was going to be able to believe Naruto was a mere genin.  _'Then again, without the Bunshin problem, he would have been a genin two years ago.'_

Naruto dropped a spare mask, the book, six kunai, eight shuriken, ten exploding taps, his map of the Five Great Shinobi countries, his house keys, a rations bar, a coupon for dango Anko had given him, and a spare hitai-ate. Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi just stared at the blonde, uncomprehendingly.

* * *

 

"Holy shit!" The Jounin yelled, while the genin stared in absolute shock.

"That kid's a kleptomaniac!" Asuma exclaimed, not believing Kakashi hadn't noticed that Naruto had stolen all of that from the Copy Cat ninja without him noticing.

"How'd he manage that?" Tenten asked in awe. Lee nodded in agreement.

"When I first met Naruto, was when an ANBU had brought him in for picking his pocket and stealing his money when he was five. This was after cashing him for seven hours straight." Hiruzen laughed at the gob smacked faced of his shinobi. "After that, it became tradition for new ANBU to try and capture Naruto. So far, only a few have managed it."

"Kakashi never stood a chance in hell." Asuma whispered. Team 9 nodded along with their sensei.

* * *

 

"What?" Naruto felt the stairs of his teammates and sensei. "I couldn't find the damned book, so I just took everything!" He defended himself.

"When did you even do it!" Kakashi exclaimed.

Naruto shrugged, "When you dug out and handed me my winnings. It wasn't that hard, you were looking at the tic-tac-toe game, trying to figure out how you lost, so I grabbed everything then."

Kakashi stared, then sighed. "Well, you all understood that the point of this exercise was teamwork, so I have to pass you. We meet back here tomorrow at seven."

"We'll be here by ten." They all announced.

Kakashi wiped away a tear, "You've learned already. For now, let's go report to the Hokage for our first mission."

"Yes!" They all yelled, even Sasuke.

Five minutes later they were entering the Hokage's office, only to have Naruto be tackled by an ecstatic Tenten. "I saw your exam, we've got to compare ideas for trap designs, and weaponry! And you've got to teach me how you made the explosive tags! Hokage-sama said that was only your level one and that you go up to level threes! I've got to learn how to do that!"

Naruto blinked, this girl had a black chakra signature, meaning she used her chakra along with weapons. Then he processed what she said. "Trap, ideas! Of course we can compare, I always need new ideas, and I can teach you a great way to practice! It's fun for you and funny for everyone expect the victim! Plus, using material to test it before replacing it with weapons is a great way to practice and work out kinks! And sure, I can teach you both my exploding tags, and flash tags! Hey, you can help me with the lightning tags!"

Team 7 meanwhile paled along with Team 9. "I fear for our lives." They all chorused.

The others in the office had paled as well. This was a terrifying moment in the history of Konoha.

"Oh, Hey, Ojji-san!" Naruto said, beaming at the Hokage, who smiled warmly back, still unnerved by the glittering eyes, that he knew for a fact couldn't see him.

Naruto noticed the ANBU chakra signature in the ceiling and couldn't help but roll his eyes. Seriously, how could the ANBU be unable to catch a blind kid! Come on, he couldn't have been that good.

The ANBU appeared behind the boy yelling, "I've got you now!" Before Naruto disappeared. The ANBU with the mask of a Frog yelled out in despair. "So close, I was so close! How does he always manage it! It took me forever to find him, and now I've gotta do it again!" The ANBU disappeared, chasing after the blonde, determined to catch him.

The jounin and present genin blinked. "What was that about?" Sakura asked.

Team 9 turned to the Hokage, "You were serious about that?"

Hiruzen laughed, "Of course. Frog-san had been chasing Naruto for a week now. Still hasn't even come close to catching him."

"What?" Team 7 chorused, even Kakashi was confused.

"Naruto once pickpocketed an ANBU when he was five, and after a seven hour none stop chase, the ANBU brought him here. Ever since then, it is tradition for the ANBU rookies to try and capture Naruto. Nobody has managed it in four years." Hiruzen laughed at the expression on Naruto's teams face.

"I never stood a chance," Kakashi sighed dejectedly.

"You'll have to get you mission tomorrow. You're all dismissed." The Sandaime Hokage laughed as they left his office. Yes, Naruto wasn't one to be underestimated.

Naruto laughed with him. "I wonder how long it'll take Frog-san to figure out I never left your office?"


	3. The Land of Waves

It had been four months since Team 7 became an official team, and they had done more D-ranks than most teams in a year. Both Sasuke and Naruto were determined to raise enough D's for a C-rank, and they had finally done it. They had also broken the genin record for catching Tora the cat. They had caught the annoying cat 407 times, not that they even knew there was a record, but still.

"Hi, Ojji-san!" Naruto said as his team walked into the Hokage's office. "You owe us a C-rank, now! That's 789 D-ranks in four months!"

Iruka gaped at the blonde's statement (he had never heard of that many done in such a short time period) while Sarutobi merely chuckled. "Can you please escort Tazuna-san in please?" The twinkling blue eyes still unnerved him.  _'It's like he can see you, but you know he can't!'_  The Poor Sandaime thought.

"Eh, what's this, a bunch of snot-nosed kiddies?" The man walked in, and all Naruto could smell was alcohol. Oh, how he hated that smell, it was so over whelming. "And what's with the midget with the stupid look on his face." Naruto growled, he knew from the chakra signatures that he was shorter than Sasuke and Sakura, but wouldn't know how his face looked since he couldn't  _see_  it.

Kakashi got ready to grab the blonde, but it wasn't necessary, as the irate blonde controlled himself. It was a miracle in Kakashi's opinion, but then again, this was a client, not a teammate. "All of you go pack, and we'll meet at the gate in an hour. And none of us will be late." Kakashi added, assuring them that he'd be there on time. Tazuna raised an eyebrow, but let it go.

An hour later, Naruto was silently panicking. He'd never been out of the village before, and even though he could use his jutsu to 'see' things, he was still uncomfortable with the knowledge he needed to constantly use his jutsu on the way to where they were going.

"Let's go!" Naruto smirked as Kakashi led the way out, Tazuna leading him in the front.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura spoke up after an hour of walking, "We're going to the Land of Waves, right? Don't they have shinobi there?"

"Nope," Naruto answered, "The Land of Waves, once called the Land of Whirlpools, has no current ninja villages. Before it was renamed, Uzushiogakure no Sato was located there, but was destroyed during the Second Great Shinobi War, and not long afterward, the land was renamed."

Everyone stopped to stare at the blonde, who felt the gazes, and stopped with them. "What?" Naruto asked, annoyed. "I thought you guys were all aware of my grades being just part of my act. I'm not really stupid, you know."

"Sorry." Team 7 chorused.

"Besides, the Uzumaki clan originated in Uzushiogakure before it was destroyed. Of course I'd know about it." Naruto added.

Tazuna stopped dead. "You're an Uzumaki?"

Naruto turned his eyes toward the man, squinting them to hide the lack of reaction in them. "Yeah, my name is Uzumaki Naruto. Why?"

"Are there anymore of you? We'd thought that you had all died out!" Tazuna exclaimed.

Naruto flinched. "Besides me, we did die out. I'm the last."

Tazuna sighed, "Sorry, but the Uzumaki's were the only ninja from Uzushiogakure that escaped with some of their members during the war. They were the seal masters of the village. If you were an Uzumaki, you were naturally great with seals." All of team 7 nodded. They all remembered when the blonde had finally finished his lightning seal, as it had been very painful for them when he tested it out of them. He was now working on a seal that would store jutsu so that if he was in a hurry and low on chakra, he'd be fine. So far, more painful than anything else.

Naruto sent out another wave of chakra, and to his surprise, he hit another chakra source, two actually, in a puddle, which was very weird. Naruto smirked as a plan formed. "There's a puddle." Naruto stated. Team 7 quickly backed away from the blonde, knowing that even though he no longer acted like an idiot, when he saw puddles, he tended to stick his new lightning seal in them to see if it had the effect of electricity. But no one would step in the puddle to test it out.

Tazuna nodded when they explained to him, and said that it had run in the family, the Uzumaki's were crazy when it came to their seals. Naruto took the seal and tossed it at the water, 'watching' as the chakra from the seal electrocuted the two hiding in the puddle. Their screams made everyone stop in surprise. Naruto beamed, "It  _does_  act like electricity! I can finally focus souly on my jutsu seal for now!" Naruto hummed happily, ignoring the screams easily.

"Naruto, did you know that there were people in the puddle?" Kakashi asked slowly, as if talking to a small child.

"Yep! They didn't hide their chakra signature like Frog-san does, so it was easy to find them!" Naruto smirked at their disbelieving look. "Oh, come on! I have ANBU recruits chasing me regularly, you think I wouldn't notice the two chuunin in the puddle? I just thought since they were going to attack us, I could try my seal on them. Now I know it works!" Naruto started humming happily again. He sent out another wave of chakra looking for anyone else and making sure he didn't run into anything for a little while.

Kakashi nodded, and the screaming finally died down, just enough that Sakura wasn't looking like she was going to puke anymore and Sasuke wasn't staring at the blonde in an attempt to read him (which was impossible. His eyes never gave anything away, and it was slightly unnerving to the Uchiha heir).

The group continued walking, Tazuna telling of the real reason he needed ninja, until Naruto winced at something, before starting to whimper. "Naruto?" Kakashi asked, concerned.

"Loud." The boy whimpered.

They had discovered Naruto's very sensitive hearing during a mission at the Inuzuka Compound, when all the dogs began to bark.

"Ah, here." Kakashi put two ear plugs in the blonde's ears, decreasing to sound of the water, and causing the blonde to sigh in relief. While Naruto relied on his hearing a lot, he also relied on his waves of chakra that he used, and being blind wasn't even a hindrance anymore. The water only worried the blonde slightly, since he was unable to swim, as no one had thought to teach him, but he was able to walk on water, since he needed chakra control for his wave of chakra he used.

Once team convince the blonde to actually get into the boat, they were all set to go.

"Wow, that bridge is huge!" Sakura whispered in awe. "That must have taken a long time, Tazuna-san."

Tazuna laughed, "Thanks, Sakura-chan."

Naruto nodded in agreement, his chakra pulse couldn't even go over the whole bridge without a little effort, and since a lone it could go very far, Naruto had to say, that was one large bridge. He only wished he could see it… no better to not think on that.

Naruto listened as Tazuna finished his story about Gato. So, a big business man was terrorizing a small town to gain power. Well, that was stupid. The guy already had power, why'd he need more of it?

"This is where I stop, good luck Tazuna-san." The man sailing the boat said, before turning around.

Once on land, Naruto sent out another wave of chakra, before throwing a kunai with a flash tag at the watery chakra that was getting ready to attack them. Go figure that the blind boy is the one that is the most useful. Naruto 'watched' the chakra flash, and the water chakra fell to the ground, rolling around.

"Momochi Zabuza!" Kakashi exclaimed, before snickering, "The Demon of the Mist taken out by a genin's flash tag." Naruto smirked gleefully, he'd gotten to use two of his seals! And both worked!

"Damn, is that what that was? Never heard of them before, but damn that hurt like hell! Who invented those? I need to get me some!" Zabuza groaned from the grass.

"Naruto," Kakashi said to the blonde, "I hope you realize the Hokage will want you to start selling those now, right?"

"Yep! I can tell him the lightning one works too! Oh, and I already started on the jutsu one, but it mostly just seals water into the paper, which is kind of ironic, but still, I can make a water seal for ninja with a water affinity to have, that way there's never a shortage on water!" Naruto clapped his hands together. "Yes! That's it! Instead of a seal that holds any kind of jutsu, five different seals for the five different elements!"

"Great Kakashi-sensei, you've got him on another rant now." Sakura groaned. Sasuke sighed, while Kakashi was looking at the blonde in exasperation.

Zabuza was just looking incredulous. "What is this kid? Some sort of seal nut?"

"Nope, just an Uzumaki." Kakashi sighed.

Zabuza's eyes widened, "Ah that explains it. The Uzumaki's are crazy about seals, but I thought they had died out."

Naruto immediately went to sulk, off of his seal high. Damn it, why? Was that going to be brought up throughout the entire mission?

"Naruto is the last of the Uzumaki, and please, don't get him started on a seal rant again. While productive, it's driving the rest of us crazy." Kakashi sighed, it was so bad he was asking the enemy ninja for a favor.

Naruto pouted, but shut up. Sending out another wave of chakra, Naruto felt another presence, this one made of ice. Hmmm, what to do, what to do? Tell them, or ignore it? Well, they were bashing his seals so, they could figure it out later! Oh, shit, he really did become crazy when it came to skill with seals. Oh well, not his fault.

Zabuza groaned as his sight came back. That was Hatake Kakashi he was talking to. Well, shit. He looked over at the kid in the kill me orange, did he even know what he was wearing? That was the kid who had made the flash seal that had blinded him, though, so he wasn't to be underestimated. Oh, the last Uchiha, make sense with Hatake as a teacher. Then there was a girl who's hair was pink. Very, very pink. Weird. Ah, there's the bridge builder. There was no way they were going to hand him over though, so this would be a fight either way. At least it was going to be fun!

Zabuza grabbed his sword, grinning insanely. His sword was precious, one of his most prized possessions. He guessed the Uzumaki boy was the same with his seals. Maybe it would-wait, what's wrong with the kid's eyes? They were blank, sightless blue. The kid was BLIND! BWAHAHAHAHAHA! And from the looks of it, none of his team nor client knew! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

"Kakashi-sensei, why is he laughing like that?" Sakura asked, this man was reminding her of Naruto when he finished the lightning seal, and that was scary. It was like a rabid dog had discovered a bone and thought it was funny. Tears were coming out of the missing-nin's eyes, he was laughing so hard.

Naruto cocked his head, why was he getting a bad feeling about this? A very, very bad feeling. Gah! He wished he could see the fucking man's face! What was he laughing at? It was time's like this that being blind sucked.

"I got beat by a kid in a kill me orange jump suite?" Zabuza growled, deciding to label the blind thing in the back of his mind for further information. Maybe he could use that in a later battle? Eh, either way the kid was an Uzumaki, and that meant that he was a prodigy when it came to sealing.

"Well, why don't we get started?" Zabuza grinned as he raised his sword, he would go after the blind one first, see if he could keep the act up in a fight. This was going to be fun. Charging forwards, startling both Kakashi and the two other genin, Zabuza took aim at Naruto who was already defending himself.  _'Kill me orange jumpsuit? I was told that this was normal ninja gear! I hate the villagers sometimes!'_

Now aware that he was in a horrendous orange jumpsuit, Naruto vowed to himself that he would go to the nearest clothes store and fix this problem. First, was to fix the problem that involved the Demon of the Mist attacking him without slowing down even a little. In a desperate attempt, since even with his echolocation jutsu, he couldn't dodge the speedy attacks, Naruto tossed one of his experimental seals at the mist ninja. Not expecting the sudden attack, Zabuza screeched in pain as the seal had a poisonous effect on his body. He needed to remove it, but it zapped him every time he tried.

"And that," Naruto stated, smiling brightly, "Is why you never make fun of my seals. That's another one I'm working on, it's supposed to paralyze you for an hour, but mostly it just poisons and zaps you if you move."

Kakashi sighed; at least they hadn't been the ones that the blonde had tested it on. Before anyone could move, two senbon hit Zabuza in the neck, killing him instantly. Naruto narrowed his eyes at the ice chakra, he had been positive that this guy was on Zabuza's side, but since he had decided not to speak up, Naruto guessed he would have to keep quiet about it for now.

"I thank you for taking Zabuza out for me. I must return with the body to Kiri to prove my kill." The ice chakra disappeared, flaring up like Kakashi's did when he disappeared.

"Well," Kakashi said, "Let's get a move on to Tazuna-san's house." The group turned to go, but Naruto felt woozy all of a sudden. Huh, he'd used way too much chakra for that seal… Naruto collapsed, a small (for Naruto, at least) gash on his back.

"Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed, catching the attention of everyone present.

"What's wrong with him, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, as their sensei checked the blonde out.

"Naruto has a large gash on his back and chakra exhaustion from using an experimental seal. I'll have to carry him to Tazuna's house. For now, we have to keep moving." Kakashi picked up the blonde and they started on their way again.


	4. Truths and Training

Kakashi held the glowing green hand over the blonde, all the while berating himself for not noticing. That was two things today that had come back to haunt him. The first was figuring out that the so called hunter nin was on Zabuza's side and that Zabuza was still alive. The second, well, let's just say he got an unexpected surprise when he cast a diagnostic jutsu on the blonde.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Kakashi looked over to see Sasuke and Sakura standing in the doorway. "What's wrong with Naruto's eyes? That jutsu you cast, it showed a green glow over Naruto's eyes, but over the wound on his back, it was red."

Kakashi looked at them in sadness, they hadn't known either. Maybe nobody did, or maybe the Hokage knew. That made sense since the blonde trusted him so well. "The green glow over the eyes means there's a long time injury there." Kakashi sighed (he was doing that a lot lately) "It means that Naruto is, and has been for a long time, blind."

"What?!" Even Sasuke had yelled. Naruto was blind? Since when?! Why the hell didn't they notice.

"Calm down," Kakashi snapped at them. "From what I can tell, it hasn't affected Naruto's ability as a ninja at all, but I do wish he would have told us. I believe that the only one who knows besides us is the Hokage, but this does explain why he can sense chakra so well. Though it makes me wonder how he's able to design seals or even read."

"Maybe, maybe we should wait for Naruto to tell us about his disability himself." Sasuke spoke up. "He obviously doesn't trust us with this, and if he hasn't even told Iruka-sensei yet, he doesn't want anyone to know. We wouldn't have even known if he hadn't passed out."

Kakashi nodded, "Sasuke's right, for now, we act like we don't know."

* * *

Naruto sighed, as he fell from the fucking tree once again. His chakra control was great, but showing that he could do it already would raise questions that he didn't want to answer in case they figured out why he already knew how to do all of this. That would suck to answer.

Sasuke and Sakura were both done with the exercise and Naruto almost wanted to say screw it and tell them.

Like he was ever going to do that.

If it became common knowledge that he was blind, the thrice damned council would demand that his career as a ninja be ended. That was not something that he wanted. If his ninja career was ended then he wouldn't be able to get a job in anything else which would mean he'd be forced to leave Konoha. Try as he might, Naruto couldn't hate the place, but he did hate the people.

On that happy note, time to figure this fucking exercise out!

Focusing just enough chakra to his feet, Naruto ran at the tree and up it as quickly as he could. He could feel Kakashi's gaze on him as he made it to the top. It wasn't a prideful gaze or a condescending one, but a questioning gaze. It was like Kakashi-sensei was aware that he should have known what this exercise was all about.

Naruto ignored the gaze for now; he'd worry about it later. Sighing, Naruto turned his attention back to the task at hand, and he ever so slowly walked down the tree, showing that he now understood how to use just enough chakra for it. While everyone knew that Naruto wasn't really a dobe, they still had trouble believing it. Naruto couldn't even bring himself to be annoyed with them since he had played the part so damn well.

" **That you did, kit."**  Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin. It had been so very long since the Kyuubi had said anything that to hear for him now was disconcerting. The demon fox hadn't talked to him since before the Mizuki incident, though Naruto suspected the reason for his silence was because nothing interesting had been going on for the last few months. Not until now, that is.

' _What do you want, Kurama?'_  Naruto sighed, giving in to the urge to just answer the annoying bastard fox. It wasn't like he had anything else to do anyways.

" **I'm bored."**  The simple statement had Naruto contemplating murder. The demon fox, Kurama no Kyuubi no Kitsune, was the most annoying being on the planet.

' _You might be bored, but I'm busy! I need to figure out how I'm going to keep my secret just that, a secret!'_  Naruto snapped at the fox. This entire mission had been grating on his nerves. It was annoying to have to hide a part of yourself, but Naruto knew that it was necessary. He was fine with people knowing he wasn't stupid, he would be fine with them knowing that he was a jinchuuriki, but he'd be damned if they knew he couldn't actually see them.

" **Just tell them, already! It's not like it'll be the end of the world. The way you can draw out seals and function better than people with sight just adds to your credibility as a ninja! Besides, I think they already are suspecting something's off with you."**  Naruto narrowed his eyes.

' _What do you know that I don't, fox face.'_

Kurama chose that time to become silent once more. Naruto scoffed at the fox's random input. His career would be over the moment his disability came out. The thrice damned counsel didn't want him as a ninja in the first place! What the Kyuubi was talking about was a mystery.

Kakashi looked over to his student in sadness. Naruto had been blind for years, but previously, most people thought that the blond was impossible to hurt for more than a week at most. What had been done to the boy that had completely destroyed the Kyuubi's ability to heal him? It was also unnerving to know that the blonde ninja couldn't see you with the way Naruto was able to express himself through his eyes. Kakashi sighed, and forced away those thoughts as they all walked back to Tazuna's house.

Sasuke had been right in his idea to keep their knowledge of their team mate's secret from him. After thinking it over, the reason Naruto hadn't told anybody was obvious: Most everyone in Konoha would use the knowledge against him. Naruto had no reason to think they were any different than the villagers, and that fact alone saddened him to no effect. Though the fact that the Anbu couldn't capture a blind boy was terribly amusing.

Sakura looked at Naruto in pity, almost wanting to just hug the boy, but decided against such an action. It wouldn't do to let him think that something was wrong. Knowing that Naruto was blind made the fact that he was able to do anything as well as he did amazing. Sakura couldn't imagine what it would be like to never see again, and she had to wonder how Naruto had hidden it so well. How had the orange-clad ninja even loss his eyesight? And why did he dress in neon orange? Did Naruto even know what he was wearing?

Sasuke, on the other hand, was regretting his decision to wait for Naruto to tell them. All the Uchiha wanted to do was ask Naruto how he was able to fight so well when he couldn't see his opponent. Sasuke wanted to know if the blindness was an injury from living on the streets. When they had talked, Naruto had said all orphans left the orphanage at an early age, and Sasuke had no reason to think that Naruto was any different. Maybe this was one of the reasons that Naruto wanted to change how things were done?

Naruto was peacefully oblivious to his team's inner musings. The blonde ninja was currently thinking over what he was going to train in next. Being blind limited his choices somewhat. Naruto was already perfectly capable of using Shadow clone, Kawamiri and Henge, so he wouldn't need to work on those. His chakra control was near perfect since he needed perfect control to perform his echolocation jutsu, and he was great at seals, but that wouldn't help him in battle.

What Naruto needed was to perfect his taijutsu and ninjutsu. Being blind meant that genjutsu wasn't going to be a problem since most of the art required the victim to be able to see. There were very few genjutsu that effect only one of the other senses, and Naruto could already disrupt various types of genjutsu, so that wasn't a problem at all.

Ugh, that was going to be a problem. Taijutsu was going to be very hard to learn since he couldn't actually see the different forms! The academy style had taken him years to learn because of this problem! Sighing, Naruto resigned himself to weeks, maybe even months, of painful failures.

Kakashi noticed the sigh, be decided against saying anything. It wouldn't do to put the blond in a tight spot if he wanted Naruto to ever come to him with this problem. Kakashi had a vague idea of what Naruto was depressed over, and was currently working out a plan to counter act this problem if Naruto ever approached him.

Sasuke, however, studied Naruto with a curtail eye. "What's wrong, dobe?" Even with knowing everything he did about Naruto, Sasuke couldn't help but call him 'dobe'. He had just been doing it too long to quit now. Naruto had figured this out eventually and had just stopped commenting on the demeaning nickname. Sakura just didn't really care.

"Nothing, teme." Naruto waved a hand in front of his face, dismissing the concern. It wasn't as if Sasuke knew he was intruding on some depressing thoughts. The Uchiha wasn't even aware of his condition.

" **You mean, he isn't aware as far as you know."**  Kurama felt the need to cut in. Being a demon fox didn't mean he couldn't entertain himself in Naruto's mind. Unlike the blond, Kyuubi actually had access to the destroyed cells in Naruto's eyes.

' _Yes, Kurama, as far as I know, he isn't aware of either of my conditions.'_  Naruto sighed in response. He almost missed the days where the Kyuubi was stubbornly silent, but he should have realized that the silences between them were always short lived. Kurama just got to bored in his cage to keep silent, and Naruto was the only other person who could hear him besides other jinchuuriki and their bijuu, but none of them were anywhere nearby, leaving Naruto as the only option.

 **"Just so you know."**  Kurama snickered at his host's annoyance. While he had started out hating the young jinchuuriki, having seen everything the boy had gone through had changed his opinion greatly. Kurama was contemplating telling the boy about him being able to use the dead eyes. Using this method, Kurama would be able to tell Naruto how to position his body when learning taijutsu.  _ **'I'll tell him later,'**_  the demon decided.

Naruto thanked kami that the Kyuubi had finally gone quiet. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to keep from running into anything if he was focusing on his conversation. Sure enough, Naruto ran face first into a tree. "Ow!"

"Are you alright?" Sakura asked, concerned. Even though they knew Naruto was blind, it was surprising to see him run into something.

Naruto blinked up at her. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just got distracted, that's all."

"If you're sure." Sakura sighed, a little saddened by the fact that he hadn't told her what was really wrong.

Naruto nodded, and they resumed their trek to Tazuna's house.

* * *

Naruto glared at the spot where Inari stood. He didn't know anything about poverty? About having a hard life? Him, the orphaned host of the Kyuubi no Kitsune? It was this kid who didn't know! How would someone with parents all their life know what it was like to suffer, to truly be a lone in the world.

"Don't make assumptions, you loosely, self-absorbed crybaby! How would you know what my life was like, you aren't me! It's you who doesn't know anything! How would a child who grew up in a home with a family know anything about true suffering! Try growing up alone, on the streets with nobody, and then we'll talk, but until then, GROW UP!" Naruto snarled, slamming his hands down on the table. "You seem to have this assumption that Gato is this invincible man that we can't hope to defeat, but if that was true, why isn't you grandfather dead yet? Why hasn't Gato come here himself and finish him off? I'll tell you why, because Gato is a pathetic human being who relies on other's to do his dirty work. There are many people in this world that'd be able to kill Gato. The threat doesn't come from Gato, but from those he has hired, and for that, we're here. So don't sit there and wallow in yourself pity, afraid of a man who's shorter than me, but go out and do something! Until then, you have no right to say you've had a hard life."

Pushing his chair back, Naruto got up and stormed out of the house. He needed some time to cool off before he attempted to kill the snot-nosed brat.

Inari watched in shock as the boy left, tears falling down his eyes. Kakashi shook his head. "He's right, you know. You aren't the only one here who has had a hard life. We're ninja, we live to see death and war and destruction. Naruto himself grew up on the streets, like many of the orphans left behind after the Kyuubi attack. Sasuke here watched as his entire family was slaughtered. I, myself, have watched many comrades die in battle, and I have killed many of my share of people. Sakura here is the only one yet to experience any real hardships, but she's only just starting out as a ninja. Remember, as much as you have suffered, there's always somebody out there who has a bigger sob story than you."

Kakashi shook his head once more, before heading out the door. "I'm going to find Naruto and calm him down before he does something stupid. Think over what we've told you. You might learn a few valuable lessons."

Inari stared wide-eyed as the rest of the ninja left. Kakashi to find Naruto and Sakura and Sasuke to go to bed, "I didn't know," he whispered.

* * *

Naruto looked up at the spot Kakashi was standing in. The one eyed ninja jumped down for the tree and sat next to him on the ground. "What do you want?" Naruto didn't even try to bring his eyes to meet Kakashi's.

"You shouldn't keep your emotions bottled up like that. It's not good for your health." Kakashi said lightly.

"Yeah, you think so? Well, neither is being three hours late to everything," Naruto countered.

"Touché," Kakashi conceded.

"So what did you really follow me out here for?" Naruto sighed, knowing that Kakashi knew. There wasn't any other reason to get him alone, and Kurama had been hinting at it all day.

"You should have told me," Kakashi looked up at the sky. "How am I supposed to train someone without knowing everything about their ability's? Not knowing that you couldn't see could have been disastrous on a future mission."

Naruto's head snapped up at the jounin. "You're not going to tell the counsel?"

Kakashi snorted, "Now why would I ever tell them about anything that serious? It's not any of their business, but the Hokage's."

"Oh," Naruto said in a small voice. "Thank you."

Kakashi smiled. "Let's go back inside. We'll talk more tomorrow."

Naruto closed his eyes, and nodded. He didn't open them again, not even when they started walking back to the house. He didn't need to hide anymore, not from Kakashi.

And that was the greatest gift he'd ever been given.


	5. Demonic Conversations

Uzumaki Naruto was not having a great day. He was sore, and his entire body hurt, and his stupid teacher was a sadist! "It's not funny!" Naruto snarled.

Kakashi just kept laughing, who knew that teaching a blind genin would be so entertaining. Sasuke and Sakura had finally given up on pretending that they was unaware of the blonde's issue, and were laughing as well as their sensei. Naruto looked so ridiculous, trying to learn the new form of taijutsu that Kakashi was attempting to teach them. "It is too funny!" Sakura laughed.

"No, it's not," Naruto ground his teeth together. "I'd like to see you do it blindfolded! Then we can see if it's funny or not!"

His two teammates shuddered at the mere thought, that would be horrible. And suddenly, Naruto was right; it wasn't that funny. It was amazing that the blond had made it this far with how hard it was for him to learn taijutsu, but that could have been part of his horrible grades. Naruto wasn't just an amazing ninja, but an amazing person. It would take most people years to be able to learn to function as a normal blind person, but Naruto had managed to become a ninja, create an alternate personality and keep his disability hidden for years.

Sasuke thought that this was the most amazing thing about his teammate. He couldn't wait to see the looks on his fellow ninja's faces when they realized that the blond had kicked their asses when he couldn't even see them. Dead last his ass.

Sakura was thinking along the same lines, though neither knew it. She was particularily interested in Ino's reaction, as she was sure it would be quite humorous. She wondered if Shikamaru knew, since he seemed to know the blond had been hiding behind a mask for years. It wouldn't be that surprising if he did, though. The Nara clan were known for three things: Their shadow jutsu, the men were very intelligent yet lazy, and the woman had anger issues.

Shikamaru had always slept through class, but his grades had really been up there when they graduated. Sakura had even heard from Ino that Shikamaru was the reason that they even passed the test to become gennin.

Kakashi kept laughing, as he sort of knew what Naruto was going through, as he couldn't use his Sharigan eye for long periods of training and could only use his left eye. Naruto sent a well practiced glare in his sensei's direction, which made each of his teammate shudder. That was beyond creepy.

"Hey, Naruto." Sakura said, having just thought of something. "How come you don't ever run into anything if you're blind! Plus, you always know where everyone is and you dodge Anbu regularly!"

Naruto blinked, he had wondered when they were going to ask that question. "I use my chakra. I learned that if you send out a pulse of chakra, it'll send back images of people, and if you get good enough, objects and plants as well."

Kakashi gaped. "You're serious? And you do this all the time?"

Naruto hummed, "Around new areas that I haven't been in before, but after a few days, I don't do it as often."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, "You passed out from chakra exhaustion earlier, but how is that possible when you have enough chakra to do that all the time?"

Kakashi blinked, then frowned, he hadn't even considered that. Naruto scowled, his eyes flashing in an eery way (which was even creepier since the blond couldn't see), "I have an idea. Maybe Kakashi-sensei should tell you about my other problem while I go yell at it."

Kakashi blanched, "You can talk to it?!"

"He, and yes, I can. And the bastard has a lot of explaining to do this time." Naruto closed his eyes, and the familiar sight of his mind came into being. This was the only time he was ever able to see, so it was welcomed with relief.

"KURAMA!" Naruto yelled, as the kitsune's cage came into focus. The giant fox was currently attempting to look as innocent as possible.

" **Yes, kit? Is there something that I might be able to help you with?"**  Kurama spoke carefully. He had spent a good protion of his time imprisoned getting to know his jailor. One of the biggest things he had learned about the young ninja was that he had a temper to be reconded with. You did not want to be targeted by this child, whether he had a seal or not.

"You knocked me out! Why the hell did you knock me out?" Naruto growled, the thrice damned kitsune better have a good answer for this one, because he was treading on very thin ice here. Very thin ice indeed.

" **They needed to know kit! You need some sort of ally in the damned village. With the last Uchiha on your side, the Hokage, and Copy Nin Kakashi? There's no chance that the council will go against you. They wouldn't risk lossing the Sharingan!"**  Kurama snapped, he'd be damned if the kit didn't see reason.

"And if they react poorly to your presence? What then? The council will know exactly what happened that day and they'll make sure I never do ninja work again! I don't want to leave Konoha, damnit! It's home, the only one I've ever known! I can't give it up!" Naruto was on the verge of hypervenalating. He couldn't be alone again, not again.

" **Oh kit, you know that if I though there was even a chance of that happening I wouldn't have done it. You needed this kit, it wasn't good for you, hiding all the time. Now you can be completely free, if only around a few people."**  Kurama sighed, he was going soft. But this child, this blond haired child, the son of his imprisoner and his previous jailor, dredged up feelings he hadn't known were still there after the death the the Sage of Six Paths.

"You better be right, kitsune-baka," whispered Naruto weakly. "I'll trust you, but you better be right."

" **I know I'm right. Go back to your team kit, their worried."** Kurama gently forced the blond back out of him mind. He needed friends, allies to save him from the village, and if need be, from himself.  _ **'Kushina, just what would you do if you knew the horrors the people you once protected dealt upon your only child?'**_

* * *

 

The world once again faded into black, and Naruto almost cried. He enjoyed the small time that he was able to see in his mindscape. It was the only time he had such a pleasurable experience. Sending out a pulse of chakra, Naruto felt his team still there.

"Baka Kitsune," muttered the irrate blond, though the care that the fox had expressed was still fresh in his mind. He always forgot about the kitsune when he was having a breakdown. At least he would never be completely alone, not while the fox was still imprisoned inside of him.

"Back already Naruto?" Kakashi sounded surprised.

"Of course, it never takes long to get answers out of the furball. He cares...sorta, in his own way. I think he grows attached to all his vessels, though. Nothing special in that." Naruto was saying this more to convince himself than the others, who were very confused.

Deciding not to ask, the training sescion continued as it had before the blond had left to visit his 'tenant'. Naruto was never more grateful

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More of a filler chapter than anything else, but meh, I still like it so I've decided to keep it. It stayed in FF.net's version too. It's highly unlikely there will be any difference between the two because I'm too lazy to come up with two different versions of the same damned story.


	6. The Battle on the Bridge...Sorta

Dear god, this child was terrifying. What ever happened to the genin that hated blood, and were squeamish about death? Granted, the girl seemed a little nauseous, but that was only her. Blondie didn't seem to notice, and the arrogant Uchiha was just as unphased. Zabuza was actually a little concerned, of course he had to get the most abnormal batch of genin that Konoha had to offer. Well, he hoped they were at least. The missing nin didn't want to think about what it would mean if these kids were considered normal.

"Hey!" Kakashi blinked, gaining the attention of everyone of the bridge.

"What, Kaka-sensei?" the Blondie asked, kind of curious. Zabuza thought the nickname was rather suited for the Copy Ninja, as there was no way that the man was sane.

"I just realized that I lost tic-tac-toe to a blind kid!" The jounin huffed. His three genin stared at him (or in his direction at least) in disbelief.

"Let me get this straight," the pink haired girl started, disbelievingly. "We're in the middle of a battle with a S-Class missing nin and a pretend hunter nin of unknown strength and you're worried about a child's game you lost months ago?"

Kakashi nodded. "Yep!" He eye-smiled at his team, while even Zabuza felt the urge to smack some sense into his opponent. Really, who thought about a child's game in the middle of a fight? I wasn't that important.

Zabuza had thought that this fight would go much different than it had been going. So far, all he and the small team had managed to do where insult each other, always being stopped from attacking by a random comment made by the jounin, or something that the blond thought was amusing.

"How long before Gato loses his patience and shows up?" Kakashi whispered to Naruto.

"Probably not much longer," Naruto whispered. "He and the large group of people are already moving closer to us. They're probably wondering why they don't hear fighting."

It turns out that Kakashi had underestimated Naruto's ability to sense people and objects around him. The blond genin had sensed the group as soon as the mist had been put up, and had informed his sensei immediately. Now all they had to do was postpone actual fighting until Gato became impatient and decided to take matters into his own hands. Zabuza seemed in no hurry, and Kakashi had to wonder if that was because he was remembering their earlier encounter. Anyone with at least a little sanity didn't want a seal happy Uzumaki coming after them. In theory, Naruto wouldn't even have to get close to take out the missing nin.

Naruto just wanted to try out his new seal. He had ben working on his Paralysis Tag and had finally managed to get the seal to immobilize anyone within a hundred feet of him. He'd had to key in his teams chakra signatures so that they wouldn't be paralyzed with the enemy, but Naruto could work on that later. He briefly considered selling these lags with the flash seal and the element seal, but decided to keep them for his personal arsenal with the lightning tag. After all, the Nara specialized in keeping opponents immobile, and he had to much respect for them to sell a seal that made a similar affect to their clan jutsu.

Fuinjutsu was one of the hardest arts of the shinobi world to learn. The basics took years to master and finding the right symbols to create new seals took even longer. Being an Uzumaki, he was more proficient than most, but Naruto still had a hard time coming up with the right sequence of symbols that caused the effects that he wanted. Some failures became something else, like with his Flash Tag and some literally exploded in his face.

Haku was finding all of this interesting, to be truthful. It was obvious that the Konoha team was stalling, but he and Zabuza were more than curious enough to find out. It was often that a ninja stalled anything and the group must have had a very valid reason for doing so.

"Ne, blondie," Zabuza cocked his head. "I've got a question for as you all so effectively continue to stall for whatever reason that you have."

"Yes?" Naruto cocked his head.

"You're blind, right?"

"No, I just make a habit at not seeing things." Note the sarcasm.

"Then are you aware that you are in a bright orange jumpsuit that should be classified as 'Kill-Me-Orange'? I would think that it would be to have opponents underestimate you, but that was before I knew you couldn't see." Zabuza was honestly curious. He loved a good battle and bloodshed, he really did, but he had a soft spot when it came to what he viewed as children. It was the entire reason that he had taken Haku in. He just couldn't stand to see a child suffer in anyway, and that made things much harder in this fight. Along with the fact he wanted to know why the Konoha nin were stalling, he really didn't want to be forced into killing the children. Even if the Uchiha was asking for it.

Naruto stared in the direction of what he assumed was Zabuza (the chakra was watery while the other looked more like ice and/or snow). "What?" There was a very dangerous ton to his question, and Kakashi wondered if they were going to die anytime soon.

Sakura nodded, vigorously. "Yeah, I can't believe I forgot. I guess I got so used to seeing you in it that I didn't even think to ask."

Sasuke seemed more amused than anything. "The Taijutsu may not be funny, but this is. So, what are you going to do to the poor sap who lied to you?"

Naruto's glare heated up, "Kill-Me-Orange? Is that some kind of joke they thought would be ironic? It's not!"

"Ironic? Why-OH!" Sakura giggled. "It is kind of ironic, considering. Though, isn't your problem red-orange, not bright orange?"

"My problem is going to have a problem if he doesn't explain why he let me walk around wearing orange of all things!" Naruto snarled, for once looking more than a little dangerous.

"Maybe your problem thought that it was good stealth training?" Kakashi suggested. "You do have to admit, dodging Anbu recruits wearing bright orange and being blind and a genin is very impressive."

"Just think of how well he could hide without the orange," Sakura added in, making her other two teammates shudder and Naruto smirk. Oh, he was so ditching the orange the first chance that he got. The Anbu weren't going to like how much harder their challenge was going to get.

Zabuza was looking impressed. "Hmm, I would hate to have to track you down, kid."

Naruto grinned at the man, his eyes flashing happily. Haku and Zabuza blinked, not sure if they had really seen that or not.

Kakashi noticed the confusion. "They do that a lot. It's really hard to tell that there's anything wrong with his eyesight with the way that his eyes react to things like happiness and other emotions. I think the Sandaime even finds the phenomenon creepy."

"Oi!" A new voice entered the equation. "Why are you all standing around? I thought gramps was going to be in trouble!"

The gathered turned to see Inari standing there with the villagers, all armed with various weapons. Naruto frowned, he wasn't sure, but some of those tools seemed to take the shape of garden tools under his chakra.

"We're being smart and sneaky ninja and stalling," Kakashi said happily. "We're just waiting for the last guest to stop hiding. Naruto sensed him a while ago, but we far misjudged his patience."

Zabuza frowned, before dispersing the mist jutsu. Sure enough, Gato and his army were revealed. Well, that explained the stalling.

"Did you think that you could double cross me?" Zabuza raised his killing intent. "Me, Demon of the Mist, killer of thousands?"

Gato gulped. Naruto vaguely thought that this was a good learning experience for Inari. The boy could clearly see that Gato was afraid of them, which lowered their fear of the dictator.

Kakashi snickered, "Or that you could use mercenaries to defeat us? To introduce myself, I'm Copy Ninja Hatake Kakashi, the man of a thousand jutsu, former Anbu captian, current S-Class jounin with a whole two pages in the Bingo Book on me."

Sasuke and Sakura gaped, while Naruto smirked. "He's also chronically late to everything, hates to write reports, loves his orange book, and his a pervert who has seemingly always worn a mask for unknown reasons. No one in the world knows what he looks like. He also is the summoner of the dog clan, and the son of Konoha's White Fang."

Kakashi pouted, "Have you been breaking into classified files in the Hokage's office again."

Naruto 'looked' at his sensei, his eyes showing nothing but innocence that Kakashi didn't believe for one second. He really needed to stop looking at the boys eyes, though. It was starting to creep him out.

Tazuna stared at the ninja he'd hired to protect him, "More than capable indeed." The bridge builder muttered, remembering the way the Copy Ninja had assured him of his safety.

Gato just gulped, "Who ever kills them will be paid triple!"

The mercenaries grinned and surged forward. Each of the ninja, baring Sakura as she stayed to protect the civilians, surged forward as well. Naruto, in a stroke of bright thinking, grabbed a Tag Seal and keyed in Zabuza and in hunter nin person quickly. It wasn't hard as their chakra was filling the air with previous jutsu. He then tossed the tag down and felt everyone freeze.

"There, no more problems!" Naruto hummed happily. He was looking to see if anyone remained unaffected beside's those keyed in, and grinned when no one moved.

"The hell?" Zabuza finally asked.

"Paralysis Tag got completed," Kakashi explained. "Have fun, their all yours and they can't move a muscle. Try not an break the bridge, please, or I might track you down and try one of the Lightning Tags on you."

Zabuza just ignored the threat and grinned, this was going to be fun! Haku chuckled and the two got to work while the villagers were ushered away from the bloody scene.

Team Seven smiled, their first C-Rank turned A-Rank was complete. Naruto smirked, sending out a chakra pulse as finally Gato was killed. The idiot had brought all of his forces to meet with them at the bridge and had left none to ambush them as they left.

Tazuna just snickered, he had always known that Gato wouldn't live long after he pissed off the wrong person. He felt that Kaito's death had been more than avenged. He glanced at Inari, who was chatting happily to Naruto. Yes, this was more than worth the fine he'd have to pay for lying about a mission.


	7. The Chuunin Exams

It was funny, Naruto thought as he 'glanced' around Konoha, sending out his chakra to get a better feel for his home. Konoha had never felt more like a prison than it did at this moment. He had spent years deceiving the villagers and everyone around him, he had spent more than enough time hiding his disability, and now that he had people who knew, who would never care, they couldn't even acknowledge the information. The new bond that they had made between them.

The Sandaime had reacted well to the news that his team knew, and the way they had just accepted the fault had made the old man smile in badly suppressed pleasure. Naruto hadn't known that, but the light-hearted color of the man's chakra had indicated a pleased sensation. There was still the watchful eyes of the council that were hard pressed on the Jinchuuriki and he found himself missing the easy interactions that had come about in Wave Country, but at least his life in Konoha was now that much easier.

They were merely training for the day, for once. Naruto was more than suspicious of this, as they hadn't been only training since before Wave, which was over two months before. Kakashi had to of had some sort of motive, and Naruto wasn't the only one who was 'watching' the teacher warily. Naruto frowned, the Anbu that usually tailed him in an attempt to capture wasn't following him anymore either. There was something important going on. Naruto wanted to know what it was. Anything that made the Anbu stop chasing him was either very good or very bad. Depending on whether it was visiting Daimyo's or Kages, or there was an infiltrator in the village. Neither were that good of a situation (Daimyo's and Kages often were scarred for life after visiting Konoha).

"Naruto, are you listening?" Kakashi glared at his blind student how stared in his direction with a blank look. The expressions that blond was able to make with his eyes still scared the white haired ninja.

"No." Naruto deadpanned. Kakashi and Sakura sweatdropped, while Sasuke snickered. Naruto's personality fitted with his much more than the blond's fake persona had.

"Where you thinking about Zabuza and Haku?" Sakura asked.

The two missing nin had indeed returned to Konoha with them. They were full-fledged shinobi of the Hidden Leaf now, but were on probation until further notice, as decreed by the Council. Sarutobi-jiji was not happy about their interference with shinobi matters, but had let the matter slide for the moment. It seemed that one more interference would end the Council, however. Naruto was gleefully waiting for that day to happen, because he'd no longer have to put up with the old farts if they were gone. The only the Council of the Thirteen Clans would be left.

The Council of the Thirteen Clans consisted of the Senju, the Uchiha, the Yamanaka, the Akamichi, the Aburame, the Nara, the Sarutobi, the Inuzuka, the Hyuuga, the Kazama (extinct), the Namikaze, the Uzumaki (Naruto being the only heir, meaning he wasn't yet aloud to participate until Chuunin), and the Tobimaru (extinct).

Out of all these clans, only ten were still in existence. The Sarutobi was headed by the Hokage, but the Heir was Sarutobi Asuma, who took his father's place in the Thirteen Clans. The Senju was headed and survived by Senju Tsunade of the Sannin. The Uchiha was supposed to be headed by Uchicha Itachi, but was now run by Sasuke, who also had to be Chuunin to gain his seat. The Inuzuka was headed by Inuzuka Tsume, who was Kiba's mother. The Aburame was headed by Shino's father, who Naruto forgot the name of. Yamanaka Inoichi was the head of his clan, with his teammates Akamichi Choza, and Nara Shikaku as the heads of theirs, the original Ino-Shika-Cho team. The Hyuuga was headed by Hyuuga Hiashi, the father of Hinata and Hanabi. The Uzumaki clan was Naruto's birthright.

The Uzumaki clan originated in Uzushiogakure, as Tazuna had said. What most didn't know is that Senju Harishima the Shodaime Hokage, married Uzumaki Mito, the first container of the Kyuubi. When Mito had moved over, her closest relatives had as well, and split the Uzumaki Clan into two. That was when the 'Eternal Alliance' was established. The symbol for Uzushiogakure, which was mostly made up of the Uzumaki and the branch family, the Uzuki, was sewed onto all the vests for the Chuunin and the Jounin. This was to symbolize that the villages were always united. During the Second Ninja War, Uzushio was wiped out and the survivors were taken to Konoha. Most people wanted the Uzumaki dead and their numbers dwindled greatly, until only Uzumaki Kushina, heiress of the Uzushio clan was all that was left.

Uzumaki Kushina was known by Kumo as the Bloody Habinero (sp?), because of her bloody red hair and all of the Kumo Ninja that she had slaughtered during the war, which was not surprising as Kumo had attempted to kidnap her. She was also the previous Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi and Naruto's mother. Naruto himself, took after his father in appearance. It really wasn't that hard to figure it out, everyone always commented on his spikey blond hair (and he'd always been told spikey blond hair was what had given the Yondaime the name the Yellow Flash when using Hiriashin).

Naruto wondered what the reactions would be when people were made aware to his heritage (also when he was Chuunin or at least 16). He also wondered what would happen when they realized he was the heir to two of the Thirteen Clans, and he hoped they chocked when they realized who they'd been attempting to kill. Naruto fully planned to cackle madly on that day.

"Naruto, you spaced out again." Kakashi sighed. "In two weeks time, the Chuunin Exams begin. I've nominated you all for both. You are all above gennin level and the A-Rank proved it. Sakura, you're the one who has improved the most, your Genjutsu is a great tool for the team, even if your Ninjutsu and Taijutsu need a little work. I've signed you up for medical ninjutsu training, your chakra control is perfect for the program. The two weeks should be enough for you to have the basics down before the Exam."

"Sasuke, your Taijutsu and Genjutsu needs the most work. I've signed you up with training sessions with Maito Gai, and Genjutsu training with Yuhei Kurenai. You start today after I dismiss you. I've also signed you up for weapon's training with my old friend Genma. He'll find you, so don't worry about finding him."

"Naruto, you will never be able to use Genjutsu, and you'll never be able to be caught in it. Dispelling Genjutsu takes a pulse of chakra, and you do that constantly anyways. You also need eyesight to be caught in most Genjutsu as well, so that area is void for you. Your Ninjutsu is amazing and doesn't need much work. Your fuinjutsu puts you above gennin level with you understanding. Your trap making skills scare me, as do your vanishing skills... Your Taijutsu is excellent now that you've learned different forms, and truthfully, you should already be a Chuunin. You would be, if not for your Bunshin issues, before people realized you had too much chakra to manage the jutsu. Kage Bunshin took care of that handicap, so you're fine there. Really, I only signed you up for training with my friend Hayate, in Kenjutsu. Hayate will need to know that you can't see, but I'll be supervising lessons and as a former Anbu, he'll keep your secret. That, and he'll get a kick out of Anbu not being able to find a blind kid."

Naruto cocked his head, the idea of telling someone else bothered him, but there was nothing more to it. At least he wasn't in Kill-Me-Orange anymore. Kakashi had picked the new outfit out for him. It was a dark blue, flexible, but snug long-sleeved shirt, and dark blue pants. He kept his sandals. The pants were wrapped with white tape and he had replaced the cloth on his Hitai-Ite with a longer, dark blue material. This hair hung over the mental, as it had grown longer in the time since Wave. Sakura had suggested he keep it that way, Sasuke had agreed on the improvement, and Kakashi had seemed oddly smug about something. Naruto shrugged, he really didn't want to know.

"So, I'm meeting with this Hayate-sensei?" Naruto focused his attention on Kakashi. The Jounin nodded, before answering (he would need to remember to do that).

"Every day, for six am to three pm. The rest of the day is yours to prepare in whatever way you want." Kakashi chuckled. "Sasuke, yours will be from three am to twelve pm with Gai, and two pm to six pm with Kurenai. From seven pm to nine pm will be with Genma. He'll meet you at the Uchiha District training grounds. The rest of the time is to be used for resting, no extra training. Rest is also important."

Sasuke nodded, "Who should I go meet with?"

"For today, you'll only work with Gai and Genma. Kurenai is somewhat busy." Kakashi answered, eye smiling at his team.

"What about me, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, annoyed at being overlooked.

"The Medical Ninjutsu training will take up most of you day, from three am to six pm. Make sure to rest for an hour then from eight pm to ten pm I'll work with you on your Taijutsu. The rest of the night is to be used for resting. On Weekends, the Medical Training is only three am to twelve pm, so I'll be there at one pm to three pm for training. The rest of the day is for resting. You're dismissed, report to the hospital."

"Hai, Kaka-sensei."

Kakashi sighed, that nickname was all Naruto's fault. The blond had done it on purpose to, he just knew it!

Naruto 'looked' to his sensei. "Ready to go, Kakashi-sensei?" There was a distinct smirk on the blond's face. Kakashi just knew this was going to be a long two weeks.

* * *

**Two Weeks Later**

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura stood outside of the Academy, smirking. They knew they were more than ready for the exams, and were more than a little excited to be entering. Naruto wanted nothing more than to just jump up to the third floor, but his teammates were insistent that that was rude.

"Let's go!" Naruto smirked. "I can't wait to see who else entered."

Sakura nodded. "It'd be nice to see all if the other Rookie Nine are there!"

"Seeing old classmates is troublesome," Sasuke smirked.

Naruto found a morbid fascination with using the word 'see' in every sentence he could. Somehow, his two teammates had caught on, and were having just as much fun with the inside joke as he was. Naruto chuckled, they were far from normal, but after the two weeks they just had? Naruto didn't care if they were ever considered normal. There were worse ninja than them out there.

Sasuke had been horrified when meeting Maito Gai and Rock Lee. Naruto was just glad that he couldn't see the 'Spring Time of Youth Genjutsu'. He shuddered at the description however. the only normal people on that team were Hyuuga Neji a branch member, and Tenten (whose last name was unknown). Genma was apparently a sadist, and Kurenai had be okay. The Uchiha seemed to have improved despite the now questionable state of his sanity.

Sakura had loved her training, and had been inspired by the Medical Ninja to really move forward in her training. She had mastered the basics in a week, something that had had the hospital staff gushing over her. Her taijutsu was vastly improved.

Naruto had added a katanna to his outfit, hanging across his back. There were also daggers hidden in his pants and a few in his sleeves. Hayate had been a great teacher, and Naruto looked forward to working more with him. Kakashi had been a fun sparring partner as well, and Naruto was confident in his ability to use his new weapons. Using Kage Bunshin to train had upped his confidence as well, as he'd had months, maybe years, of training with the use of the jutsu in the two weeks. The rest of his time had been used training with Haku. The two perfected his Taijutsu, Zabuza gave him tips on his Kenjutsu, and Naruto had picked up the use of senbon from his new friends. Senbon had joined his kunai and shuriken in his weapons pouch.

Entering the Academy, they were met with a deserted feeling. Naruto waved his teammates to follow him, the blond knew a staircase that led straight to the third floor. It would help to bypass all the competition and hopefully avoid people who wanted to challenge 'The Last Uchiha'. They certainly didn't need to be thrown out for fighting.

The room was filled with other Chuunin hopefuls, from all different villages. Naruto frowned as each of his teammates described the ninja to him. There were ninja from Amegakure, Sunagakure, Kumogakure, and Otogakure, a new village that had appeared in Rice Country. Using information that Zabuza traded to gain access to the village, they knew that Oto was run by the missing nin, Orochimaru of the Sannin. It was a good thing that they knew, as now they had eyes everywhere on the three gennin that had entered.

"The other's are here as well," Sakura whispered in his ear. "So are Team Gai. I wonder if Gai-sensei managed to corner Kakashi-sensei yet?"

Naruto snickered, he found the 'Eternal Rival' situation that his sensei had with Gai to be hilarious. Especially after Sasuke had told them all the stories that he had heard from Team Gai. Team Seven nodded at their sensei's rival team, and received a nod in return.

The other of the Rookie Nine made their way over to the group. Naruto tuned out the conversation that followed. He wasn't in the mood for socializing. Kurama was reacting to the presence of another Biju, and as far as Naruto was concerned, finding out who the fellow Jinchuuriki was, was far more important than catching up with friends. According to Kurama, there wasn't any need to be too worried, as Shukaku was that Biju he was sensing, but Naruto would rather stay on the safe side of things.

He located the source in a group on Suna Gennin. There was a male puppet user, his puppet taking the place of his true body. There was a female Fuuton user, similar to himself. It was the third member, his chakra made of sand, that caught his eye. Naruto smirked, he would keep an eye on this one.

"Alright, you lot," Naruto knew that voice. Morino Ibiki strode into the room. "Welcome to hell."

Naruto felt oddly giddy, this was going to be fun!

* * *

Naruto smirked at his completed test. Just a little trick with a seal and some of his chakra and he'd been able to completely copy all the answers from the Chuunin that was hidden in the room with them. It had been easy, and the blond was now patiently waiting for the examiner to give out the tenth question.

Sasuke was using his Sharingan (activated during a horrible training day with Gai) and was copying another Chuunin the the room using his Kekkai Genkai. Naruto had to chuckle at that. He was positive that no other Uchiha had ever thought to use the doujutsu's ability for spying and not copying jutsu. Then again, Sasuke had spent months on the same team as himself, and Naruto wouldn't stand to let someone ignore every possibility when using a tool.

Sakura didn't have any way to cheat, but she could answer them without the method, so that wasn't a problem. Naruto snickered when he saw Ino take over Sakura's mind and copy her test. There was a genjutsu on the page that only Sakura would be able to see through, so the Yamanaka had just copied all the wrong answers. Sakura had sent the genjutsu to disspell when given the tenth question.

"Alright, pencils down. It's time for the tenth question." Ibiki called out, making them all stop. Naruto 'glared' at the man, making him more uncomfortable. Everyone in the Anbu knew who the blond was, he had pranked them all more than once. Naruto wondered if the man was remembering all the times Naruto had gone after the T & I sector of the Anbu. The blond had to hold back a snicker.

He watched impassively as teams left the room. The threat of never going above gennin was far to much for them to continue on in their exams, nevermind that a ninja of another country couldn't do that without major political backlash. Naruto was happy to 'see' that none of the Rookie Nine left the room.

The window next to the examiner shattered and Naruto frowned at the noise. A warped chakra source flew into the room and stood ontop of the front desk, and sign covering the form of Ibiki from his chakra.

"The name's Mitarashi Anko!" A female voice exclaimed. "And I'll be your the Examiner for the Second Exam!"

Naruto moaned, of all the rotten luck.

"Naru-chan?" Anko was staring at him hard.

"Call me chan, one more time, Dango-face..." Naruto growled. "I'll go to that resteraunt you like and burn all the Dango there."

Anko pouted, Naruto easily able to tell due to knowing her so well. "Don't you love me anymore?"

"Not since I was seven and you tried to feed me to a snake," Naruto deadpanned.

"That was an accident! I didn't mean to!" Anko wailed, before smirking. "Beside's, it only ate your seal paper."

Naruto growled, and his teammates paled. Messing with Naruto's seal paper wasn't a good idea.

Anko appeared in front of her younger friend and quickly had him in a captive hold. Naruto growled, he really should have seen this coming. "Alright, gaki's, follow me!"

Naruto sighed, why was no one he knew normal?


	8. The Forest of Death

Naruto officially hated life, and everything that went with it. He hated that he couldn't see, he hated taking tests, he hated people getting hurt, he hated the system that orphans had to deal with, but most of all HE HATED THIS FUCKING FOREST!

Then again, it didn't seem that his teammates much liked the forest either. There was nothing about this place that was even vaguely fun or interesting. They'd already gotten their other scroll, and for all intents and purposes, they should have been at the tower relaxing while waiting for the exam to end, not running from a psychopath pedophile who was interested in his male teammate and ranted about power!

All in all, the Second Exam was a horrible experience for Team 7 and Naruto was about ready to activate the emergency seal that he'd created in case they needed dire help during a mission or in this case, the exam. The seal would immediately alert the Hokage and Kakashi that there was something wrong and then they'd have back-up. Right now, they needed to ditch the psycho.

Naruto quickly made more than three dozen clones before he realized the flaw in his plan. He had no idea what he teammates looked like.

"God damnit! Sakura, Sasuke, I need you two to henge my clones to look like you!" Naruto shouted to his two teammates.

"Got it!" Sakura replied. He felt her chakra move off course, but forced himself not to panic. Sasuke followed his example, and the clones (as well as Naruto) made sure to remember the way the chakra had molded for future problems when things like this happened. It wouldn't do him any good to have a plan like this when he wasn't able to implement it.

"Make straight to the tower," Naruto called to them. "The clones will distract the psycho while we get there. Henge yourselves into a different team and make sure that it'll take more than a 'Kai' to undo it. Better yet, Sasuke, use your Sharingan to hold the technique in place!"

"Got it," Sasuke yelled back. "Make sure Fuzzy knows that he has to hold up you part! I can't use this on you due to the seal on your stomach! Your problem should be able to, however."

 **"Already done, kit."**  Kurama chuckled in his head.  **"You just get yourselves out of there. I haven't met the human before, but my previous host knew of him. The Legendary Sannin of the Snakes, you should be able to throw off the scent by passing through the river up there. Snakes have a good sense of taste, if not smell."**

"Pass throw the river!" Naruto related the order to his team. Sakura glance at him in confusion, but complied. Naruto wasn't sure what had stopped her protests, but something had.

He couldn't wait to get out of this hell whole.

* * *

The journey to the tower was an adventure that Naruto never wanted to relive. They hadn't encountered anymore enemies, but the stress of knowing that a Sannin was after them had gotten to the team. Thankfully, they had escaped, but they had also ended up in a different situation once they had been escorted to the medical rooms.

"Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Haruno Sakura, you three are to come with us," a Bird masked Anbu ordered, glaring at the three through the eyeholes in her mask.

"What for?" Sasuke growled. They hurt, they'd been chased by a psycho, and they'd managed to get to the tower in one piece. Why the hell were they not aloud to rest?

"The Hokage needs to debrief you and brief you on matters that concern yourselves." The Anbu spun around and walked towards the door, "Follow me."

The three grudgingly followed.

* * *

"Alright, jiji. What's this about?" Naruto rubbed his temples. He was tired and wanted nothing more than to sleep.

Sarutobi sighed, "I need your events of the Second Exam documented, then you will be briefed on a situation that involves you all."

"We completed the objective and captured an enemy, securing their scroll about three hundred yards from our gate, and hour into the exam." Sakura reported.

"Naruto and I secured the area and planned the best route to the tower. We wanted to be as unseen as possible and getting their quickly was the best way to keep our abilities unknown. We briefly considered taking out competition, but decided to forgo that plan in chance to use anymore time given to us to rest and practice for the next part of the Exams." Sasuke reported, standing at attention.

"We were ambushed by the Sannin, Orochimaru, on course to the tower. Using Kage Bunshin and Henge, we made copies of the team and used them to throw him off as we made our way to the tower. Direct confrontation was not the best way to go, but the Kage Bunshin are still being dispelled as we speak." Naruto finished, leaving out Kurama's involvement. He didn't want anyone knowing that the kitsune had played another role, as there should be no reason that Sasuke's Sharingan wouldn't work. Being Blind was part of issues, the seal being the other part.

"Good, these events are now officially recorded and documented. Were you able to learn any information when in contact with Orochimaru?"

"He's interested in Sasuke and something's going to happen in the exams." Sakura answered. She felt a smug satisfaction when the other two tensed in surprise. They had been more focused on surviving than gathering information from the psycho.

"Good, then this will be easy." Sarutobi sighed. "What I'm about to let you in on is an S-Rank secret, more problematic than Naruto's problem. Orochimaru wishes to place a seal on Sasuke's neck so that he may be able to take over his body. These are called 'Cursed Seals'. They are dangerous and only one has ever been studied before by Konoha, yet no one has managed to break it yet."

"May I see it?" Naruto asked, frowning. "I know that I'm not a master, but due to my circumstance, I might be able to find something that has gone missed by other's."

"Anko, please come in." Sarutobi called out. The young woman walked in, her demeanor screaming in anger and pain, as was her chakra.

"Yes, Hokage-sama?" Anko asked with forced politeness.

"Should Naruto your seal. He may be able to find something."

"On her shoulder," Sasuke hissed in his ear. Naruto nodded, smiling, before pushing chakra into his hand.

"This is complex." Naruto murmured. "There are so many crossing paterns that it's hard to see which is which. The outside is done ingenuisly, simple swirls hiding the real seal network."

Anko gaped, "How do you know that? The other seal specialists have been stumped, and you're just a gennin."

"Chuunin, hopefully after this exam." Naruto grinned. "I'm a Uzumaki, seals are our specialty. Honestly Anko, you know me by now! Didn't you think it was weird how good with seals I was? Anyways, he real sequence is pretty basic, Orochimaru most not be good with seals if he has to hide the work to make sure that no one figures out how to undo them. There's the basic mentality seal, and the basic control seal, as well as a chakra enhancer. I should be able to break it with an easy pattern that you learn in the basics. Anything more advance wouldn't work, since the sequence is so basic."

"Get it off," Anko growled. "I want it gone."

Sarutobi nodded, "Yes, do it now."

Naruto nodded, and pulled out his sealing brush. A few calculated stroke with his chakra guiding him. "This will hurt." Naruto cautioned, before shoving his chakra into the seal. Anko screamed in pain, while Naruto focused the chakra into the seal. Anbu flooded the room and stared in awe.

"Done." Naruto panted, and Anko raised a hand to her neck. She felt nothing there, she felt no pressing force on her chakra. It was gone.

"You did it." She whispered, looking at the small child she'd watched over in Anbu. Naruto had always known her, and when she watched over him again as a Tokubestu Jounin, he'd recognized her. Now, he'd freed her.

"Yep, now, anyone want to carry me back to the medical wing?" Naruto smiled, before collapsing.

"Shit!" Sasuke caught the blond.

"He okay?" Anko asked, concerned.

"Tired, he was concentrating a lot of chakra into that seal and the backlash did him in. He was already tired from the forest. He may have a lot of stamina, but even he needs to take it easy every once in awhile." Sasuke reassured the gathered group of S-Rank ninja.

Sarutobi chuckled, "Return to the hospital wing, the rest of the briefing can wait until tomorrow."

They complied.

* * *

"So let me get this straight, an SS-Rank whackjob wants to have Sasuke's body for the Sharingan. There's also something fishy going on about Suna, and the Oto nin are definitely in on it. Plus that Kabuto guy smells like snake and is obviously a medical nin, but has had no training and has information on Konoha ninja that he shouldn't, which makes him a spy. You want us to try to befriend the Suna gennin and gather intell and prepare for a possible war and the third exam? And you've already made us Chuunin because of our actions in the First and Second Exam?" Naruto groaned. "Old man, you're killing me here."

Sasuke nodded, "That is rather much, especially the 'wants my body' part."

Sakura shuddered, "I knew that something was wrong with that Kabuto dude."

Sarutobi smiled at them, as did Kakashi. They were taking the whole thing rather well, considering they were deceiving three different villages, including their own. Naruto had more practice, so he could mind the other two, but it must sit wrong with them to keep the information quiet.

"Remember, no one must know, or Suna and Oto will know we know. It must stay secret."

Naruto scowled. "What do you take us for, Jiji? We know that better than anyone! It's just getting the other's to listen to us that's going to be hard."

"I agree, they would have no reason to believe us, and may accuse us of working with the enemy, when the time comes to let them know what's going on." Sasuke frowned.

Sakura hummed in agreement, already picturing the indignant look on Ino's face when she found out that Sakura had made Chuunin after the first two exams. The hot-headed Yamanaka would refuse to believe that she'd been left behind. Not that Sakura really cared anymore, as Sasuke was more of a brother to her now than anything else. Naruto was too.

"They'll believe you," Sarutobi smiled at them. "The Jounin will back you up."

"Good." Naruto glared. "Make sure that it's Asuma and Kurenai backing us up, else the other Jounin might not bother."

Sarutobi sighed, but nodded anyways. "Either way, you are dismissed. Go report to the Hot Springs tomorrow at Noon. Kakashi and your new tutor/sensei will meet you there."

"Hai, Hokage-jiji!" The three coursed, smirking. Sarutobi chuckled, Naruto had really rubbed off on his teammates. The question was whether or not that was a good thing or if he should fear for the sanity of the village.

* * *

Naruto cursed, using language that caused Sakura to turn bright red and Sasuke to stare at him. Naruto had managed to summon yet another tadpole.

Meeting Jiraiya of the Sannin and finding out that he was their tutor had bee more than a little surprising. Naruto had immediately taken to the man, which was strange since the two only ever insulted each other. It seemed that Jiraiya was a Seal Master, which had instantly gained the blind ninja's interest. The lack of eyesight was still a secret from the Sannin, but that was only because Team Seven wanted to see if the Sannin could figure it out.

Kakashi had taken to training Sasuke and taking the young Uchiha on as an Apprentice. Sakura wasn't too put out from this, as she was well aware that Kunoichi had much different strengths than Shinobi. The pink haired girl had taken to focusing on her Medical Training. They only had another day before they were to meet for the Preliminary Rounds of the Chuunin Exam, and they were working as hard as they could to make sure that each one of them made it into the Third Exam.

Sakura had improved vastly, and her skills in Taijutsu and Medical Ninjutsu easily made her Chuunin level. She'd been working all week (they'd finished the exam in a day, after all) to develop attacks using her Medical Ninjutsu and knowledge of the body. The Kunoichi was confident in her abilities, something that she'd never been secure in.

Sasuke had already managed to produce one Chidori at a time. He was working on Summoning as well, though he wasn't having any easier of a time than Naruto. he kept summoning only small puppies, having signed the Dog Contract with Kakashi. Both cursed as they repeated with the same results.

Naruto had been working on Chakra Control, much to the annoyance of the blond. They'd tested for their Affinities, and using each of the newly discover affinities, they'd been assigned a new Chakra Control Exercise; Sasuke's was to manage to mold the Lightning Chakra around his body and keep it from lashing out; Sakura was forced to manipulate water around her hands in an attempt to keep it in the air, something that greatly helped her in her Medical Ninjutsu. Naruto's job was to use his chakra to cut leaves into half, the hardest of the exercises, as fuuton chakra was the hardest to control.

The results had been worth the effort, as Naruto could now conduct Fuuton Chakra throw his katana and daggers, making them much more dangerous than they would have been otherwise.

Sasuke could mold lightning chakra throughout his body, making it hard for an enemy to keep a hold of him. Sakura had gained mastery over all her chakra, making her Medical Ninjutsu that much more accurate and stronger.

"Enough for today," Jiraiya smirked at them. "We'll resume training after the Preliminaries. I expect you three to make the Final Round, you hear me?"

"Hai, Ero-sensei!" Naruto and Sasuke smirked at the cursing Sannin, while Sakura giggled.

The Uchiha and Haruno shunshined home, eager to get some sleep before the fights began. Naruto paused, "See you later...Kyofu."

Jiraiya and Kakashi spun around to stare at the blond, but he was already gone. The white haired man chuckled, "Well, I'll be damned. Looks like I don't have anything to explain to him after all."

* * *

"The first match is Dosu vs. Rock Lee!" The proctor called. Naruto felt the urge to stare and Hayate in shock, it certainly explained why he couldn't find the man during the time at the tower. The swordsman winked at Team Seven, Sasuke whispering the action into the blond's ear.

The match didn't last long, Lee already knowing all of Dosu's moves from a confrontation in the forest. The Sound Ninja went down quickly and hard, his already bad injuries making the fight short. "Winner, Rock Lee!"

"Nice job, Bushy Brows," Naruto grinned at the Spandex wearing ninja. It was times like this that being blind was an advantage, as the Green Spandex did not affect time. The Genjutsu, however, was another matter. It seemed that not even lack of eyesight stood in the way of the 'Youthful Sunset'. Naruto shuddered, as did Kurama. That was one image they'd have been glad to never experience.

"Yosh! Your Youthful Words are so kind, Naruto-kun! May the Spirit of Youth run rampant during your own battle!" Lee yelled, hugging the blond. The contact made the blind gennin twitch, repeatedly.

"Next match! Yoroi of Konoha vs. Kin of Oto." Hayate called out. Naruto didn't even bother paying any attention to this match, and his decision ended up not mattering. Kin ended up being taken out by Yoroi, but her genjutsu bells had also knocked him out. It was called a Tie, and neither advance. Naruto noted that those were two less to worry about during the invasion. Yoroi was a spy on Kabuto's team as well, and the other teammate was already taken care of (having died in the Forest of Death, Orochimaru had take his place and left with Kabuto).

"Next match! Sabaku no Temari vs. Tenten of Konoha!"

* * *

Sasuke winced at the beating Temari gave Tenten, the use of only Fuuton jutsu not lost on him. He didn't even want to know what Naruto would be able to do with the affinity, if this was the power behind the element.

Sakura couldn't agree less, though it was exciting to see and compare the differences between the way the two used they're elemental affinities. Naruto used it to cut, yet Temari used it to repel attacks and break down anything that could be used as camouflage.

Naruto only studied the way the chakra flow was going. He wasn't paying much attention to the matches as it took chakra to pay attention. He couldn't afford to watch the events and settled for asking his teammates later what had happened in each battle. It wasn't until he was matched up that he focused.

"Naruto, you're up," Sakura whispered to him. "Your opponent is Kiba."

"Thanks," he hissed back. Kiba was a skilled gennin, Naruto was ready to admit that, but the Inuzuka style relied on that of their canines and their senses. Naruto, being blind, had sense that rivaled theirs and his style was long ranged, while Kiba was a close ranged combat specialist. This would not being going in his friend's favor.

"Look Akamaru! We get to see how skilled the pretend dobe really is!" Kiba grinned at his friend. He didn't really mind that he hadn't known of the blonds prank, it just meant that he had to work harder to make sure he was never caught unawares like that again. The fact that the entire village (barring Shikamaru and the Hokage) knew made him feel just that much better.

"Bring it on, Inu-Kokyuu!" Naruto smirked at his opponent. Kiba grinned back. Not all of Naruto's personality had been an act, after all. The best lie is based on truth.

"Begin!" Hayate gave Naruto a look that said clearly 'You better win, or else'. This was lost on the blond, but he could feel the glare aimed at him. It was times like these that being blind didn't bother the Uzumaki.

"You better win, you little Brat!" Zabuza's voice rang out from his left. "Else I will lose all respect for you!"

"Shut it, you no eyebrowed Freak!" Naruto, conveniently using a detail that Sasuke had used when describing both Haku and Zabuza to him. It would certainly make the Former Missing Nin wonder how'd he'd known that.

"At least I didn't walk around looking like a walking target in Kill-Me-Orange!" Zabuza shot back, indeed wondering how Naruto knew that he had no eyebrows.

"At least I have nothing to compensate for! Seriously, what is with that sword?" Naruto could feel the confusion radiating from the audience and Kiba. Akamaru was just content to observe the proceedings. The Jounin in the audience were having heart failure as a Gennin baited the former Demon of the Mist.

Zabuza just cackled, "Good to see you're still as disrespectful and annoying as usual! Now get on with the match!"

Naruto snickered to himself, his interactions with the so called 'Demon' were always interesting. Their personalities just clashed, but that seemed to be fixed by the love they both had for swords and weapons. Zabuza was particularly interested in Naruto's knowledge and use of seals.

The thinking gennin didn't even have to pay attention as he dodged the attack that Kiba launched at him. Apparently his friend had grown tired of waiting.

"Impatient, much?" Naruto snickered at the growl his comment received. It seemed that Kiba didn't appreciate being ignored. Akamaru snarled and Naruto frowned as he heard gasps from the crowd. He could feel the chakra that Kiba and Akamaru were molding, but couldn't detect the difference that the other's in the crowd seemed to.

A genjutsu maybe? Naruto frowned and focused his chakra pulse on Kiba and Akamaru. To his surprise, he found that the Chakra around Akamaru took the form of Kiba, meaning that the Inuzuka was preforming the Jūjin Bunshin (Man Beast Clone). Naruto smirked, this wouldn't work on him. As the two Kiba's charged, Naruto focused on attacking the real Kiba.

Kiba pulled in surprise, he didn't know how Naruto knew it was him, but he sure that Naruto knew. The the usual tricks that he used with Akamaru weren't going to work, and that was a problem. The Inuzuka Techniques were the only things he really bothered to learn, and with the hard learned skills being easily countered, Kiba was going to have to rely on trickery and Taijutsu.

Naruto was surprised when the duo resorted to Taijutsu. As soon as his hit connected with Kiba, the other boy had changed tactics. Was it possible that his friend, always boasting about becoming a great Ninja, hadn't learned anything beside's his clans techniques? Every Ninja knew that relying on the same move every time was going to be suicide in a real fight. You would become predictable, which was a death sentence.

Naruto countered the blow aimed at his head, and the leg coming up to kick him. This was the Academy Taijutsu, something everyone in Konoha and beyond knew how to defeat. Kiba had no business being in the Chuunin Exam, and Naruto wasn't about to lose to Academy moves.

The moment Naruto drew a sword, Kiba knew he was screwed. He wasn't sure why he'd been confident. Naruto had dodged Fang Over Fang **(sorry, I couldn't find the translation, not for lack of trying)**  and could tell him apart from Akamaru, something that should have been impossible. He should have had this fight in the bag, using Akamaru as the bait while he took Naruto out.

Kiba parried the first strike with a Kunai, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to do this long. What he didn't see was the Kage Bunshin that came from behind him and stuck a dagger to his throat. He froze, instantly.

"Surrender," The Kage Bunshin demanded, pressing the dagger closer. Akamaru whimpered from behind him, where two more clones held the puppy done.

"I forfeit." Kiba whispered.

Hayate smirked, "Winner, Uzumaki Naruto." There was silence from the crowd.

"Good job, Gaki!" Zabuza yelled at the blond.

"Shut up, No Brow!" Naruto called back, dispelling the Kage Bunshin and releasing Kiba and Akamaru. He could have ended the fight much quicker, but that would be insulting to his friend and there was no way he was showing his seals to anyone before the Third Exam.

"Good match, Kiba. You two, Akamaru." Naruto smiled at his friend, making sure that his eyes were filled with the appropriate emotion. It was getting much harder to do, since he needn't bother around his team and the Hokage. Naruto frowned, that was a skill that he shouldn't put off practicing. He would rectify that.

The victorious blond moved back up to the stands, and greeted his team. All three were in the final round.

* * *

"Draw a piece of paper from this bag." Hayate instructed the finalists.

"1," Shikamaru sighed, what a drag.

"4," Neji stated.

"2," Temari smirked.

"5," Lee yelled, "How Youthful!"

"8," Gaara stated, not twitching one muscle in his face.

"3," Sasuke sighed, he was stuck with Neji. At least he had learned to get rid of the arrogance. Naruto made sure of that.

"6," Sakura whispered, glancing between Naruto and Gaara.

"7," Naruto smirked, how ironic. Two Jinchuuriki fighting.

 **"You better not lose to Shukaku, kit."**  Kurama commented, amused. It had been a long time since a Jinchuuriki of his had been forced to fight against one of his siblings.

 **'Do you have no confidence in me, Kurama?'**  Naruto mocked the kitsune in a hurt tone.

Kurama laughed, before falling silent.

"The Third Exam begins in a month, you will have that time to prepare," Hayate explained. The matches are as follows:

1\. Nara Shikamaru vs. Sabaku no Temari

2\. Uchiha Sasuke vs. Hyuuba Neji

3\. Rock Lee vs. Haruno Sakura

4\. Uzumaki Naruto vs. Sabaku no Gaara."

"You are all dismissed!" Sarutobi announced. "I wish you all the best of luck."


	9. Discoveries And All Around Insanity

Sarutobi Hiruzen was tired. He was so very tired. There just wasn't any other way to describe what he was feeling. Ever since Minato had been killed, Sarutobi had been forced to retake the mantel of Hokage so that the arrogant and bloodlusting bastard Danzo wouldn't get a chance at the seat. Danzo, who was once his best friend and greatest rival, was merely a shadow of his former self, never the same when their teacher, the Nidaime Hokage had passed him up for Sarutobi. Even Homura and Koharu treated their teammate differently, and Sarutobi felt all his previous love for them fall into question.

They were his teammates, the ones that he should always be able to rely on. The fact was, however, there was no trust between them, not anymore. Sarutobi was saddened by this, but accepted it. He had ignored the problems for years, letting the council gain power, more than it should have ever had. They used that power in opposition of him, and without a thought spared for the village. In total, they were the cause of the rapidly falling reputation of Konoha. Only the exploits of various ninja of their village kept them from falling into a bind like Sunagakure had.

Now, Suna, in a desperate attempt at gaining that reputation back, had teamed with Otogakure, in a plan to invade Konohagakure. They didn't count on their plans being discovered. Naruto had alerted Sarutobi of a spy, a gennin by the name of Kabuto. Sarutobi hadn't ever even met the so called gennin, which was a sure sign of a spy.

When apprehended, it became obvious that the child was a medic ninja, a very good one. That didn't mean that he could take out two squads of Anbu. Ibiki had enjoyed making the boy crack under torture. Orochimaru's plans were easily recovered. He was meeting with some Sunagakure ninja today to reveal what they had discovered.

The death of the Yondaime Kazekage weighed heavily on his old mind. Sarutobi sighed, he was far too old for this, but it needed to be done. Otogakure was in for a surprise when they went to invade. Without the Suna on their side the Invasion was doomed to failure. Orochimaru wouldn't be any wiser.

As for his pesky council? The civilian version had been disbanded. Homura and Koharu had been replaced as his advisers. They were now only elders, nothing more, and they held now political sway anymore. This was a NINJA village, not a Daimyo's village. There was only the Hokage, and nothing more.

Danzo was also dealt with. Sarutobi felt the need to cackle at his old friend, thinking Sarutobi was unawares of Ne Anbu. The Roots of Konohagakure, as Danzo liked to call them. Sarutobi understood the need for them, he knew that it was necessary, but that was beside's the point. Danzo had used Ne to plan a coup d'état, and take over as Hokage. Sarutobi scowled, this was not something that he could ever allow. Danzo was far to blood thirsty and only wanted war with other nations. There was nothing in his thought process for peace.

Jiraiya had been helpful in getting rid of the old geezer (not that he could talk). Danzo was executed when evidence of his helping Orochimaru was uncovered. Ne Anbu was disbanded. The youngest of them, a boy who called himself Sai, was the only one Sarutobi had hope for. The rest were killed, and the families were notified of what had been done to their once thought deceased relatives. It was a sad day in the life of many clans, especially the Yamanaka and the Hyuuga. Any Uchiha's that had been found were in custody. Sarutobi wished for Sasuke to identify them before deciding if they could be saved (e.i. if they were part of the Uchiha coup d'état, the reason the clan was executed). The other members of various clans hadn't even responded to anything that was said. Inoichi had examined their minds, only to find nothing but knowledge there.

Sai, however, had vague feelings of emotion at random intervals. Sarutobi smiled in happiness at the fact they could at least save one of them. He held not hope for the three Uchiha's. The only reason they weren't dead was because the clan head (Sasuke) was needed for permission. Sarutobi scowled at the reminder of politics.

The elder Hokage sighed as he looked out onto the village. This was the longest month of his life, something he'd never thought possible. Village secrets being leaked, coup d'état's, threats of war, Orochimaru, Jiraiya's return, Team Seven's promotion and mission and the various other mind numbing events. He should have never let the village get this bad, but that was going to end, right here and now.

"Hokage-sama. The Suna Jounin are here to see you now," his secretary called in.

"Send them in Mayumi-chan." Sarutobi chuckled.

Four figures entered the office. Three of which Sarutobi identified as body guards, and one Jounin, obviously of the Sunagakure council.

"Hokage-sama, my name in Baki, of Sunagakure. You wished to speak with us?" Baki was sweating on the inside, did they know?

Sarutobi flicked his wrist, signalling his Anbu to show themselves. "Seal the room, make sure no one over hears this. Scan the three guards," Sarutobi ordered.

Baki watched with wide eyes as his guards had their minds invaded. "Is this necessary?" He was more alarmed by the glare the Hokage shot at him.

"We've discovered spies in our ranks," Sarutobi started. Baki began sweating again. "We captured a young medic name Kabuto. During interrogation we learned of the Invasion."

Baki readied himself to make a break for it. Sarutobi motioned for him to stop. "That is only one reason you are here. Kabuto told us much, but the most disturbing was of Yondaime Kazekage's death."

Baki froze, "That's not possible." He had just spoken the Kazekage, just seen the man's face. How was that possible?!

"I'm afraid it is quite possible when one is my former student, Orochimaru. He was hailed as a genius for a reason, one of them being his ability to kill and replace important figures without anyone ever knowing. He literally steals their faces and uses it as his own." Sarutobi sighed, watching the disgusted looks on the faces of all those present. "I'm afraid your Kazekage has fallen prey of this technique. In other words, you've been played."

"Damn him!" Baki cursed. "We never would have known!"

"Exactly why I hold nothing against you," Hiruzen grinned. "I know that the orders of one Kage are not something you go against. The Invasion is far from your idea and you are merely another victim of my greatest mistake."

"I will inform the elders immediately!" Baki cursed again. "The Invasion was set to go off during the Jinchuuriki fight. When that happens, we will stand with Konoha!"

Sarutobi smiled, "And we will appreciate the help."

"We have an accord." Baki nodded to his guards and they left.

Sarutobi looked up at the monument. Finally, something was going right.

* * *

Temari and Kankuro were worried. And frightened. More frightened than worried if they were truly honest with themselves. Gaara had been acting stranger than ever, not speaking of blood and death since the Second Exam and had remained quiet whenever he was in their presence.

To say the least, they expected their little brother to snap and kill them at any point in time. It was driving them all mad.

"Kankuro!" Baki's voice called out. The two siblings jumped, startled. "Temari, where's Gaara? He needs to be here for this as well. We're having a meeting, everyone that came from Suna needs to meet in Hokage's office."

"Why?" Kankuro was frowning, he'd been looking forward to having the day off before training.

"Just do it!" Baki was pissed, it was easy to tell with the glare he was directing at everyone and everything. Something was beyond wrong here, and Kankuro knew better than to argue.

Gaara appeared in the doorway, frowning at Baki, who still seethed silently. He wasn't sure what this was all about, but he knew that their 'teacher' wouldn't miss his presence if it wasn't serious.

"What is it?" Baki jumped at his voice.

"The meeting starts in an hour. Make sure you aren't followed by anyone but Konohagakure ninja, don't trust Otogakure. At all." The council man left, avoiding the door and jumping out the window.

"Well," Temari watched him leave. "That was different."

"Yep," Kankuro nodded.

Gaara remained silent.

* * *

"So, the Yondaime Kazekage is dead?" Naruto frowned. "And Orochimaru tricked all of Suna into thinking that the Kazekage had ordered the Invasion? Wow, talk about creepy."

"Naruto's right." Sakura shuddered. "That's beyond creepy. Who would want to wear someone's face?"

"Apparently," Sasuke drawled. "The Snake freak does."

Kakashi sweatdropped. This was far from the point of the conversation. Time to get them back on track or they'd been here forever. This was one meeting that they couldn't be more than an hour late for. They were already working on the hour mark as it was.

"Now, now," Kakashi eye-smiled at them. The up turned eye was the only way that Sasuke and Sakura could tell their teacher was showing any type of emotion. Naruto was forced to try and figure it out from his voice and chakra. "You're forgetting about the very important meeting that's going on, which we are already late for."

"Who's fault is that?" The Uchiha grunted.

"Yeah sensei, you only just told us about it!" Sakura glared at him.

"Don't know about you guys, but I rather get there today," Naruto drawled, walking towards the Hokage tower. "Otherwise, Jiji might get worried and send Ero-sensei after us."

Sakura shuddered, and Sasuke was already walking next to the blond haired boy. Kakashi sighed, no respect. He started walking after his leaving team.

Grabbing onto them, a which Shunshin saw them already in the Hokage's office. Sarutobi was giving them a deadpanned expression, as were the rest of the Konoha ninja gathered.

"Sorry we're late jiji," Naruto apologized. "Someone only just told us about this."

"Five minutes ago," Sakura added.

"Smiling the entire time." Sasuke finished.

"No respect," Kakashi muttered, sulking in a corner.

"We respect you," The chorused, smiling in a rather fake manner. Kakashi glared at them all.

"I'll believe that when pigs start flying," He muttered. "Don't even think about it, Naruto!"

Naruto pouted, "But the look on your face would have been funny!"

Sasuke and Sakura snickered.

Snickering was heard all over the room, Team Seven's antic's amusing even the foreign ninja. Kankuro was studying the three intently. Temari glared at her brother when he set eyes on the female of the team. Really, he was hopeless.

Gaara had only eyes for Naruto.

Sarutobi rubbed the bridge of his nose. "This, for those who don't know, is Team Seven. Hatake Kakashi, introduce your team."

Kakashi looked up from his book, "Did you say something?"

"YOSH! KAKASHI, YOUR HIP AND COOL ATTITUDE INFLAMES MY FIRES OF YOUTH! LET US HEAR THE NAMES OF YOUR HIP AND COOL STUDENT! YOUTH!" Gai's voice made everyone in the room cringe. The Suna ninja stared in shock at the green clad ninja.

"YES, GAI-SENSEI! HIS HIP AND COOL TEAM SHOULD INTRODUCE THEMSELVES TO OUR MOST YOUTHFUL ALLIES!"

"Lee! Gai-sensei! Stop subjecting these poor people to you insanity!" Tenten yelled at her teammates. Neji just sighed next to her.

"BUT TENTEN!" Lee yelled. "THE SPIRIT OF YOUTH BURNS BRIGHTLY WITHIN THEM!"

"THE MOST YOUTHFUL LEE IS CORRECT, MY NOT SO YOUTHFUL STUDENT TENTEN!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

There was silence as everyone watched in horror the the green spandex clad ninja hugged, a rather beautiful sunset appearing behind them. Naruto stood in shock, he chakra actually hitting water and he could hear the birds and smell the salt in the air. "Kai!" He shouted, but the image remained.

Kakashi stared at Naruto, then the sunset. What the hell?

"Neji!" Tenten yelled. "Their traumatizing everyone!"

"Very well," Neji sighed, before tossing both of them apart and shutting their chakra points. It didn't work on Lee, due to his lack of chakra, but it did stun them. "We apologize for them. They're nuts."

"You don't have to deal with them every day." Tenten deadpanned.

"And no, they aren't related. Would you breed with that?" They chorused.

Gaara whimpered, "They scare mother..."

The Suna ninja all turned to him and gaped. Temari and Kankuro looked at the two spandex clad ninja, they apparently even scarred psychotic Bijuu.

 **"What it the Nine Hells was that?"**  Kurama whimpered in Naruto's mind.

"They scare the Kitsune too," Naruto said, wide eyed. He still couldn't figure out how the genjutsu had affected him as well. That was scary.

There was silence throughout the room. Ibiki raised his hand. "Can I have them on Saturdays? I have some tight lipped prisoners..."

Sarutobi sighed, of course Ibiki would want to use them. Personally, he wouldn't wish those two on anyone.

"Yes!" Tenten and Neji yelled. "Please?"

"Alright, but if that spreads any farther, I'm holding you responsible!" Sarutobi rubbed his eyes. "Kakashi, introduce your team before they get back up!"

Kakashi rubbed his neck sheepishly. "This is Team Seven, consisting of Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Uzumaki Naruto. Or, the three devils, as I like to call them."

"Oi!" The three yelled, glaring at their teacher.

"I couldn't agree more," Sarutobi muttered.

"Jiji! Not you too!" Naruto whined.

"What did we ever do to you?" Sakura wondered.

"Hn," Sasuke huffed.

Sarutobi looked at them.

"It wasn't that bad!" Naruto defend them.

"Yeah, Tora deserved it! She'll be fine...maybe..."

"The cat's lucky it survived," Sasuke muttered.

"I rest my case," Sarutobi sighed. "The Fire Daimyo's wife was not happy."

"She shouldn't loss her cat then!" Everyone from Konoha yelled.

"The thing is evil!" A random jounin growled.

"It destroyed my the weapons!" A chunnin whimpered. "Nothing would hurt it! Nothing!"

"It ate my kunai!" Another jounin yelled.

"We have scars!" The gennin yelled.

The Suna ninja stared in shock, while looking around at the room. What kind of cat ate kunai?

"ENOUGH!" Sarutobi yelled. "This is about Orochimaru killing the Yondaime Kazekage and tricking Suna into trying to invade! Not the Demon Cat Tora!"

"Yes, Hokage-sama..."

Temari sat frozen, as did Kankuro. "Tou-san is dead?"

There was silence. Sarutobi walked over to the nearest wall and banged his head against it. Repeatedly.

Jiraiya snickered. "That wasn't how he wanted to tell you lot. But, yes, Orochimaru killed the Kazekage and has been impersonating him. We apologize for you loss."

Kankuro snorted, "Like I care."

Temari elbowed him. "What?" Kankuro demanded. "It's not like he was a father to you either! He even tried killing Gaara!"

Gaara was impassive. "His death does not affect me."

"Thought so." Jiraiya nodded. "Alright, as of now, all S-Rank Secrets from...thirteen? Yeah, thirteen years ago are disbanded."

"And no one told me this?" Naruto wondered aloud.

"Well, Kakashi-sensei was probably supposed to and forgot." Sakura offered.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted.

"What he said." Sakura nodded.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "It is a sad day when you realize that you can speak grunt fluently."

"That it is." Kakashi nodded. "And I resent that!"

"Hn!" Sasuke smirked.

"I resent that as well!"

"I agree, he really his..." Sakura nodded, happily.

"Hey!"

"Hn."

"Got that right." Naruto nodded, smirking.

"I hate you all..."

"That hurts, Kaka-sensei. It really does."

"Yeah, sensei, we love you."

"Hn," Sasuke agreed.

"Can we please get on with this?" Jiraiya sighed. "And I mean all of them, Naruto. Even that other one that I still don't know how you know."

Naruto snickered, "The look on your face was awesome!"

Jiraiya refrained from asking how he knew that. "I'd like to introduce to you Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto, Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune."

There was silence, before chaos erupted. Jiraiya glared at them all, "And my godson."

The noise disappeared. "Can you teach me how to do that?" Naruto asked aloud. "That would be useful."

"No," Jiraiya sighed.

"Please?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I like my sanity."

"That's not a reason!"

"Yes it is, gaki!"

"No it isn't, Ero-kyofu!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Like peeping on the girls hotspring is your research?"

"Exactly! Wait a minute..." Jiraiya paled. "Damn it, gaki!" He ran.

Naruto cackled, "That never gets old! Have fun, Ero-kyofu!"

There was laughter throughout the room as the Sannin ran from the enraged kunoichi.

"I give up." Sarutobi sighed.

Team Seven looked at him. "You had hope?"

* * *

Gaara stared at the blond. He was confused.

"You're like me?"

"Yep," Naruto nodded, smiling happily on his perched. He wondered what his fellow jinchuuriki looked like, but didn't ask. He planned on asking Sasuke and Sakura later.

"You Bijuu does not control you?" There were many ninja listening in.

"Kurama's far to lazy to try and take over." Naruto snorted. "He's still sleeping right now, and his snoring is giving me a headache."

"Kurama?"

"Kyuubi's name. Kyuubi no Kitsune is just a title. Like how Shukaku is your demon's name, not Ichibi no Tanuki."

"Oh."

"Yeah, still hates the fact that no one ever asked him before assuming that was his name. Pisses him off, but everything pisses him off, so that doesn't really count." Naruto shrugged.

"He likes you?" Gaara felt the need to ask. Shukaku had always felt like he was his mother...which was odd, since Shukaku was male from what he could tell.

"He likes all of his hosts." Naruto deadpanned. "Though, he's only ever had three...including me."

"Three?" Shukaku had hundreds of hosts.

"He doesn't usually attack people. The only three recorded attacks are when some village tried to seal him, the fight between the Shodaime and Uchiha Madara, where Madara controlled him, and the attack on Konoha. He still won't tell me why he attacked, only that someone ripped him from his Jinchuuriki." Naruto frowned.

"Ripped him from his Jinchuuriki?"

"My mother, Uzumaki Kushina."

(The ninja listening in face-faulted, feeling rather stupid.)

"Oh. She's dead?"

"Yep, all Jinchuuriki die when the Bijuu is removed."

"Oh."

"Yeah..."

"Your father?"

"Died sealing the Kyuubi inside of me."

"Oh."

"You say that alot."

"I do not now what else to say."

"Ah, not very talkative are you?"

"Not since Yashamaru."

"Yashamaru?"

"My uncle. He blew himself up trying to kill me."

"Oh."

"..."

"So, you have siblings?"

"Two elder sibling. They wish I was dead as well."

"You sure about that."

"Yes, father said so."

"The same father that wanted you dead? And you're going to listen to him?"

"Oh."

"That's what I thought."

"Your Hokage likes you?"

"I was a necessity. Not a weapon. It's the villagers that want me dead."

"Oh."

"They didn't succeed, at least."

"You have a defense?"

"Nope, regeneration."

"Useful."

"Very."

"How long do we have to keep talking?"

"Until the Hokage and Ero-kyofu unties us."

"Why are we tied up again?"

"They don't trust us to either not kill each other or to not run away."

"Ah. How did they get passed my sand?"

"Probably a seal. Seals can do anything."

"Really?"

"You do remember the giant demon in your head, right?"

"Right..."

"I make seals, but nothing ever seems to compare to the fact that my father sealed a demon inside of me. How do you step out of that shadow?"

"True. You could try and specialize in other things?"

"I'm an Uzumaki. We're seal masters."

"That is a problem, then."

"That it is."

"I only use sand to fight. People can't get close enough for taijutsu."

"Wow, that must suck. What about Ninjutsu?"

"Uses the sand... It's my affinity, I guess."

"You can't do anything else?"

"Katon turns the sand into glass..."

"That would not be useful."

"Fuuton blows it around."

"That would be counter-productive."

"Doton ends up using the sand..."

"That gets us no where..."

"Suiton soaks the sand through and makes it too heavy to use..."

"That would be band..."

"Raiton?"

"..."

"Right, I don't want to know."

"What about you?"

"Fuuton. It's actually pretty rare around here. I'm hoping for Raiton as well."

"Why?"

"'Cause then I could learn Hiraishin, my father's technique. The seals would be easy enough to make."

"That would be very useful. But why not make a version of your own?"

"That's a good idea..."

* * *

"How long are you going to keep them tied up?" Kakashi asked, looking at the Hokage.

"For as long as I need to." Sarutobi puffed out some smoke from his pipe.

"That explains why he hated us..." Temari muttered.

"Told you father was a bastard..." Kankuro smirked.

"Did I ever argue?"

"Naruto's going to escape sometime." Sakura frowned. "He's not going to be happy."

"It's for his own good." Sasuke muttered. "He needs this."

"Why?"

"Because he's driving us crazy!" Kakashi and Sasuke growled.

"Especially whenever he's around Gaara!"

"It could be Shukaku and Kurama acting up in reaction to the other's presence..." Sakura suggested.

There was silence.

"Oh."

"There you have it. Kurama probably started singing again."

"The Kyuubi sings?" Iruka looked faint. The other gathered ninja blinked.

"According to Naruto, he's tone-deaf. Only does it when their arguing."

"What does Naruto do in retaliation?"

"He plays the memory of Lee and Gai in Kurama's cage."

"Harsh."

"You haven't heard the kitsune sing... Naruto whimpers in pain when he does."

Jiraiya sighed from where he was sitting. This was the weirdest conversation ever.

He couldn't wait until this was over.


	10. Invasion

"The matches of the next exam will as the following:

1\. Nara Shikamaru vs. Sabaku no Temari

2\. Uchiha Sasuke vs. Hyuuga Neji

3\. Rock Lee vs. Haruno Sakura

4\. Uzumaki Naruto vs. Sabaku no Gaara." Hayate held up the match list. "Nara Shikamaru and Sabaku no Temari please remain on the field."

Naruto grimaced as he followed both Sasuke and Sakura up to the balcony that the contestants were required to wait together on. Gaara stood next to him, and Naruto could just feel the confusion at his grimace. Sasuke and Sakura made sure to keep a safe distance away from them, but Naruto knew that they were still staying in sight so that he could make sure to appear to be following them. Sometimes Naruto knew being blind was more of a inconvenience than anything that he'd ever had to deal with. That was really saying something, considering he was the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Said fox was laughing at him in his mind, more amused than Naruto thought that damned kitsune should be.

'Shut up, Kurama!' Naruto growled at the demon.

 **"But kit!"**  Kurama whined, **"It's just so amusing!"**

'I'm not even sure what you're laughing at in the first place?' Naruto groaned.

 **"And you won't ever know, so stop guessing!"**  Kurama was disturbingly happy, something that sent warning bells off in his host's mind. Naruto felt the urge to scowl become that much greater, but resisted, as anyone looking at him would think he was frowning at nothing.

'Baka Kitsune,' Naruto muttered unhappily to the fox. He was so caught up in his conversation that he nearly ran into Gaara, who had stopped in front of a seat in the competitors box.

"The fox is getting annoying," Gaara's voice was quiet as he spoke. It was not a question, but a statement. Naruto assumed that this meant Shikaku was also becoming bothersome to his host. The sand demon had been much more manageable since Jiraiya had fixed the seal that contained the bijuu. It seemed that the seal was what was causing the monstrous behavior in sand demon. Shukaku was by no means a gentle demon, but he wasn't usually downright insane either.

"Yup," Naruto grimaced. "It's almost frightening, but at least I know that it's not just Kurama. Makes me glad that I can get him to shut up if I really want him to."

"Ah," Gaara nodded. "The green things do come in handy for that."

Naruto snickered and nodded. 'The green things' were Gai and Lee. Gaara refused to acknowledge the two spandex clad ninja as humans, but the bijuu insisted that they weren't youkai, so Gaara only referred to them as 'things'. The fact that they managed to generate a genjutsu that even Naruto could see was scary, not to mention that Lee couldn't use chakra and Gai's own chakra was weak from lack of use. It was the fact that Gai refused to use jutsu, but declared a jutsu specialist as his rival which caused great confusion amongst the populace of Konoha.

"You two," Shikamaru's voice hissed at them. "You're drawing attention to yourselves!"

Naruto jumped, sending a wave of chakra at the arena, only to find Neji and Sasuke down there fighting. "Done already?"

"The point was not to use up too much chakra," Shikamaru hissed to the blond. "I forfeited the match a few minutes in."

"Which he will be paying for a different time," Temari was practically steaming in anger. "As he well knows!"

"Feh," Shikamaru muttered. "Troublesome."

"You're all idiots!" Sakura did not sound happy. "Naruto! Pay more attention! We need you to tell us if anyone makes a suspicious move!"

Naruto grimaced, "Sorry, Sakura. Don't worry, no one's molding any chakra other than Neji and Sasuke. We're fine at the moment."

"Still don't know how you can tell," Temari did not sound happy.

"And you're not going to find out either," Naruto shot back. It was bad enough that Shukaku had spilled the beans to Gaara. It was only luck that Naruto had managed to clue the other host into the fact that no one else knew before he accidently said anything to anyone who was out of the know.

"Remember, Naruto. No seals inside the match and you're going to have to draw the fight out until Oto make their move." Sakura reminded her sometimes forgetful teammate.

"I know, Sakura," the blond grumbled. He knew the plan just as well as she did, not matter how carefree he managed to come off as. The point was to draw attention to himself conversing with Gaara, he wanted to see if anyone noticed and signaled the invasion to start earlier. Admit-ably, not always the best plan, but he had Zabuza and Haku on the look out for out of place people in the crowd.

The plan was simple: they knew Orochimaru wanted the Hokage to himself, so they weren't going to let that happen. Sarutobi was leading the Anbu in finding the hiding place of the waiting Oto forces while Jiraiya was the one that was actually sitting in the Kage box, disguised as Sarutobi using a simple latex mask instead of jutsu. Orochimaru would be able to tell if chakra was being used, but latex and a small voice changing seal guaranteed that the man stayed in the dark to their plans. Jounin, disguised as citizens, were littered throughout the crowd, all positioned by people you were visiting from outside the village.

The Oto nin were completely surrounded, but even with that knowledge, Naruto felt that something was off. There was something else about to go down, something that had nothing to do with Orochimaru himself. He wasn't sure what it was, and not knowing was doing murder on his nerves, but Kurama's behavior just led to the feeling that something big was about to happen.

Then the screaming started. Naruto hated being right. The blond haired boy sent out a wave of chakra while directing his sightless eyes upwards. Kurama howled in anger as he used his host's useless sense to see black robes and red cloud. For Naruto, it was the chakra that gave it away, Akatsuki. Jiraiya had explained all he had gathered about them and Naruto had done some research on his own for as much good as it had done him.

Luckily, or unluckily, he didn't need research to know who he was looking at right now. Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame both missing nin and both the ninja assigned to capturing him from the leaf. Jiraiya had actual thought that they would make an appearance in the aftermath of the invasion but it seemed that they had arrived early and used the distraction of detaining the Oto-nin instead. This was going to be bad, very bad if the now attacking Oto-nin had anything to do with. The rest of the plan seemed to be going right at least.

 **"Not a big comfort kit!"**  Kurama snarled angrily.  **"We need to get out of here now!"**

"Well, if it isn't two little jinchuuriki, ripe for the taking!" Kisame gave them an insane grin. Naruto sent out another wave of chakra and nearly died of relief when he felt Zabuza's chakra accompanied with Haku's heading his way. Kurama seemed to feel a bit relieved as well.

"Who ever said that we were for the taking?" Naruto drawled sarcastically. "Right Eyebrow-less Freak?!"

"Oi!" Zabuza snarled as he landed in front of him with Haku. "And here I was coming to the rescue! You're mean, gaki."

"And you have no eyebrows," Naruto deadpanned. "Don't look his partner in the eyes! He's an Uchiha."

Speaking of Uchiha, where was Sasuke? Usually having his brother in the area would send the only other survivor of the clan into a complete hate filled rage that no one would be able to break him out of. The lack of screaming and death threats was actually concerning. Frowning, Naruto searched out for his friend and felt the familiar chakra right next to him. What?

Sasuke noticed the questioning look he was getting from everyone there. "What? Did I miss something?" He blinked, looking away from Kakashi's fight with some Oto-nin or another. It was rather interesting and he had been observing while things still seemed calm where they were at. The other's present sweatdropped. Sasuke looked at the blond teammate before Naruto pointed. Following the finger to find his elder brother, Sasuke gave the other a once over, decided that he really didn't care at the moment and shrugged. "Why is he here?"

"To kidnap the gaki and the insane red haired kid, take the bijuu, killing them in the process." Zabuza explained slowly. "Have you been around that lazy ass sensei too long?! I told Kakashi that he was going to rub off!"

He earned three innocent looks. Sasuke frowned at his brother, narrowing his eyes. Well if he thought he was taking his teammate without a fight then he was going to have another thing coming wasn't he? "Plan Alpha B?"

"Plan Alpha B!" Sakura and Naruto agreed. The three disappeared in a blur.

"While those three take on your poor partner, you and I have unfinished business Kisame." Zabuza heaved his sword onto his shoulder. "This is Haku. Let's see how well that Kekkei Genkai of your's works with him around, ne Haku?"

"Yes, Zabuza-sama!" The fight began in a clash of swords.

* * *

Itachi was having far greater trouble that he should have been even if he wasn't actually trying to capture the jinchuuriki or kill his brother's teammates. The boy was far more skilled than he had been all those years ago, and he had learned as well, fighting him with his eyes closed. The girl had taken the same route but the boy's eyes were wide open and none of his genjutsu was working. It was frustrating as he easily blocked an attack that should not have even been made in the first place! What had Kakashi been teaching his brother and why hadn't he been informed? He was supposed to be kept aware of everything that was happening with Sasuke and his training. He knew nothing of these new skills and the way the teaming was forming together like a single entity. The last he had heard there had been kinks and the team was still learning how to work together properly. This was beyond what he knew and had heard.

A flash of light blinded him and fought not to yell out in pain. Gritting his teeth he reminded himself that this was his brother and his team of genin and he was an S-rank ninja. He should have no trouble dealing with them! Yet it seemed that he was having nothing but trouble as they backed him into corners that he hadn't been backed into since he'd begun as a ninja when he was small. They were breaking his stance apart.

'One genin against a Jounin is useless,' Itachi reminded himself as he dodged and parried a kunai. 'Three genin against a Jounin that work as a solid unit? That's dangerous and that's what Konoha is known for. But they aren't genin.'

"You are no longer a genin," Itachi kept his voice emotionless. He needed to confirm his suspicion. Three genin could beat a Jounin. If he was fighting three Chuunin, everything would be explained and he would have to up his ante.

"Nope!" Naruto sing-songed.

"We were promoted after the second exam," Sakura nodded happily. "Jiraiya-ero-sensei trained us after that."

"Hnnn," Sasuke grunted.

"What he said!" The other two chorused. Itachi blinked, it seemed that Sasuke had inherited the Uchiha habit to talk in grunt after all. He had hoped that his brother would have been too young for the trait to keep but it seemed that it wasn't much of a problem with these two. They knew exactly what he was saying and how he was thinking. It was unlikely that they were going to be split up any time soon, making them one of the few genin teams to remain together after the exams.

"I see." He left it at that, not wanting to give anything away by speaking too much. He was a ninja but that didn't make him the best actor in the world and he was fighting his little brother. He had never wanted to fight his brother or kill his family but the choice between the two didn't even have to be thought about. To the clan he had been the perfect heir that would marry who they said and would one day become Hokage, making the prestige of the Uchiha clan even greater than it already was. They hadn't cared for Itachi's dreams and when asked would answer that he wanted to be Hokage. Sasuke, when asked, would say that he wanted to become the head of Anbu and retire with three children and a wife who loved him. He wasn't even sure how his brother had even found that out but that was the truth. So when the coupe that the clan was planning entailed endangering his brother's life and the peace of the village that he adored he wouldn't hear of it.

Now that little brother hated him and wanted to see him dead. That little brother thought that he wanted to kill him and that he was going to take his best friend and teammate back to his organization to be killed for the demon sealed inside his stomach. The reality of the situation was that he was spying on the Akatsuki for Konoha and planned to die in the fight that his brother would wage with him for his life. There was no other alternative with Danzou still alive and in control of the shadows of Konoha.

It was odd though, usually when he was anywhere near Konoha Danzo would have Ne Anbu tailing him. Now he felt no sign of their blank chakra or saw no flash or blank white masks. It was eerie, almost as if they were just...gone.

"Who are you looking for?!" Naruto had finally had enough of the searching chakra their opponent was sending out. "There's no one there! I thought it was for an ally at first but your chakra feels cautious so that's out. I can only think you're looking for Root and they've been disb...anded...Oh."

Itachi froze and parried the next few kunai swipes. "What?"

"Danzou was executed for treason and Root was disbanded." Naruto repeated, lowly. "But why would you worry about Danzou showing up? What is going on here?"

Disbanded. Executed. Sasuke felt the overwhelming urge to open his eyes and stared at what he saw. Relief. Itachi was relieved at the news. Sakura also opened her eyes, gasping as she finally saw the family resemblance (having closed them after Naruto had looked up and she had saw Kisame and knew who was likely to be with him). Naruto 'saw' Itachi's chakra grow lighter, as if there was a weight being lifted off of them.

"We need to talk," Naruto decided. "You're hiding something and it has to do with exactly why you did what you did seven years ago. So you're going to explain and you've got no choice because I've just sent clones around and sealed off the area. No one gets in or out until I remove them. They're keyed to me, so don't get any ideas either. Speak."

Itachi closed his eyes before locking eyes with Sasuke. It was time.

* * *

Sarutobi was having the time of his life as he took down summon after summon. Jiraiya was fighting Orochimaru in the sealed off area, having successfully neutralized the Edo Tensei with a few well place seals of his own. With Root out of the way and no traitors in Konoha plus Suna on their side, Oto was being wiped out.

The Sand Siblings weren't even being touched as they took out enemy ninja after ninja, some of them even Jounin. They were definitely getting promoted, the Hokage decided. Suna would need all the ninja they could get for money with the death of their Kazekage and those three were rather skilled. He was going to have Naruto work on using a seal for suppress Gaara's sand so that the young jinchuuriki could train his taijutsu as well. Oto nin after Oto nin was falling dead to the ground, civilians safe in the hidden boxes in the Konoha Monument.

It was a spike of chakra that alerted him to the other problem that had wormed its way into his village but the fact that half the problem was missing is what concerned him. Zabuza and Haku (best decision he'd made, inviting those two into Konoha) were fighting off Hoshigaki Kisame. The former Seven Swordsmen of the Mist were evenly matched but Haku was the turning point in Zabuza's favor. It was the absence of Itachi that was worrying. He ha d come across documents in the Root base that were very enlightening concerning the Massacre and the reason behind it. The reason why Itachi was forced to become a missing Nin was also there and Sarutobi hadn't been able to feel any regret for executing his former friend any longer. He wondered if Itachi was yet aware he was free to come home yet.

There was a spike of chakra, it felt like Naruto's and Sasuke's. There was a mix of Sakura's as well. It seemed that he did now, and that Team Seven was regretting a missed chance at Danzou.

Sarutobi chuckled as he and Enma took out another summon. The Monkey King decided not to ask what was so humorous and continued with the battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mwahahaha! There! That's all that's been written so far, so here you all are! Sightless Eyes has officially been posted on the Archive! See, this is what I do when I borrow someone's laptop for a few months (it isn't permanent but it does give me a chance to hopefully get my own before I have to give it back. Hopefully). I'm working on eleven and I hope to get it out this month! It's already halfway done as it is, so there's basis to that hope... ^^


	11. Aftermath

 

Naruto was far from happy as they made their way back to the village with Itachi in tow. The former missing nin was silent as he walked but Naruto could see the relief on his face that came with coming home for the first time in years. Sasuke, on the other hand, looked like his entire world had come crashing down. Naruto really couldn't blame him after all the information that he had heard; Sasuke was probably revaluating everything that he had ever heard and seen from his family when they were alive. It was probably not a pleasant realization. Naruto was rather glad that he would never have to have a similar one.

"What are we going to tell everyone?" Sakura asked, nervous about the on-coming explanation they were facing at the hands of the Council, not to mention the Hokage.

"The truth," Sasuke sighed, glancing at his brother. There was no other way that he'd be able to regain his remaining family and that was something that he wanted more than anything. Itachi kept his face calm but Sasuke could see the small twitch of his lips that meant he was smiling. It seemed that he was still able to read his brother, even after all these years. It was annoying to know that even when Sasuke had thought the man had murdered their entire clan for no reason other than to 'test himself' that he hadn't discarded the knowledge he'd had of his brother's personality in order to hate him all the more.

"Beyond that," Naruto commented, blank eye narrowed. "We need to be  _selective_  about what we tell them."

Itachi hnned in understanding, having easily figured out that his blond opponent was visually handicapped after only a few minutes into their battle. It hadn't been hard as the blond hadn't bothered closing his eye during their battle yet remained unaffected by any of his Genjutsu. That was an impossibility if he was able to see. Naruto's sentence was a veiled hint to keep that information quiet. He'd no problem with keeping the secret and kept on walking with the others in silence.

It was not long before he reached the village gates and braced themselves for the upcoming inteto-ah, debriefing.

Sarutobi was there waiting for them at the gate to Konoha, a grim and yet satisfied look on his aged face. He gave Itachi a warm, welcoming nod, to the surprise of the three genin and the missing nin.

"You didn't think Danzo left things to chance, did you? After raiding his underground base we found hoards of information about things long thought to be coincidence or accidental deaths. His records included the faked orders to you to have the Uchiha Clan assassinated and his 'agreement' with you so you'd stay quiet. We were going to send out a messager hawk but this makes things easier." Sarutobi smiled at the relief in Itachi's stance. "The announcement will be made today about the true events. Welcome home."

The ninja around them gave Itachi the same welcoming. To think that one of their own had been used like that was devastating and infuriating. It was also frightening. Konoha shinobi were a unit, leaves of a tree working together for the good of the village to protect the 'trunk' or civilians. The Anbu and the T&I were the roots the kept the trunk strong (not Danzo's Ne Anbu, no matter what the man thought in life). Danzo was rot that had nearly brought them down. Stealing and corrupting leaves as he went.

"Glad to be back. Now, about Kisame..." Itachi remembered that he'd left his partner to fight the former Demon of the Mist Momochi Zabuza before engaging his brother and his team in battle.

"Ah, he's already been apprehended. Haku managed to turn the battle in Zabuza's favor using his Hyoton. With the ability to freeze any of Kisame's suiton jutsu, he was easily captured when he resorted to kenjutsu. It seems your partner let himself get out of practice in that area.

Itachi nodded, eyes thoughtful. "Word that I was a spy will not have reached them yet, then. However it will not take long for them to wonder where Kisame and I are. Would you like me to continue in pretending to be a missing nin for the time being?"

Sarutobi frowned in thought before shaking his head. "Too many dangers if word does reach them of this conversation." He finally decided. "Your information from the years you spent there will already be a large blow to their plans. I do not needlessly risk my ninja. You will remain here and reintegrate yourself amongst the village life before you decide if you wish to resume missions. The decision on who will be clan leader and heir lies between you and Sasuke."

Sasuke blinked, he hadn't thought of that. A chance to get rid of the responsibilities that come with being the clan leader (admittedly to a single person clan) was a welcome thing in his books. He gave a searching look at Itachi, one that any Uchiha would be able to tell meant 'Take it. Take it now.'

"For now, when must focus on more important matters." Sarutobi sighed. "There were some interesting finds when we took down Ne Anbu. Those can be discussed later. You've all earned a break. Naruto, Jiraiya is to show you to your clan home later. Sakura, your parents are probably worried, you should report to them immediately so they stop harassing the staff. You're all dismissed."

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" The four disappeared. Sarutobi nodded to himself, one thing completed another hundred or so to go.

* * *

The team didn't meet up again until nearly a week later. Itachi and Sasuke had been too busy identifing the Uchiha that Ne Anbu had secreted away over the years. Itachi hadn't been able to identify any of them, but had speculated that they were among those that had been kidnapped as babies. It had been one of the reasons that the Uchiha Clan were set of have a coup, all the missing children that turned up if they didn't keep their eyes on them twenty-four seven. 'So that's why Danzo didn't want us to discuss the reasons with them...' Hiruzen had sighed in mourning for all that could have been solved years ago if they had managed those talks.

Kisame had been interogated by the T&I teams and was locked in one of the highest guarded cells in the underground Ne base. It had been turned into the Anbu base after discovery, to throw off any spies that were trying to find information on the village. Really, if the underground complex had been missed by the natives, unfamiliar spies who knew nothing of the territory were never going to find it.

Kakashi had been more than happy to turn over Sasuke's clan training to Itachi (someone who actually had a full Sharingan and could help him with it more that Kakashi ever could). Jiriaya had taken over Naruto's clan training by teaching him secret Uzumaki Clan technique's. He'd been tasked with guarding the Uzumaki Temple as well, for reasons that Jiraiya and Naruto refused to tell anyone. The perimeter seals made sure that no one that wasn't Uzumaki by blood could get into the Temple. So if it was accessed without Naruto knowing, he'd be there in a heartbeat.

Sakura had focused on reassuring her parents that she was fine and learning Medical Ninjutsu. She'd come a long way from the basics and had been helping in the hospital with the wounded from the invasion. Kakashi couldn't have been more proud when he had heard.

So when Team Seven finally met again, it was for the promotion ceremony. While they'd been officially chuunin since the second part of the exam, the team needed to get the flack vest with the rest of the promo-tees. Suna's genin were to be in attendance as well. Kakashi had a feeling that they too, had been promoted, recalling the tales that he had heard of the genin going around the village and saving various Konoha civilians that had been forced out of hiding during the attack.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was to be the acting Kage for both villages in this matter since the Kazekage had been killed. Suna had thought it was appropriate seeing as he had seen more of their skills and knew whether they were qualified or not than any filler Kage they could send. So he'd started with the Suna genin.

"Sabaku no Temari!" Sarutobi called. Temari stepped forward with only a bit of hesitation. "You have shown great skill in times of war, leading your team in defense of the villagers and protecting numerous allies from enemy attacks as they took civilians to safety. You have been promoted to Chuunin. Be proud and serve your village well."

Temari accepted the flak jacket with a bright smile before stepping in line with her team.

"Sabaku no Gaara!" Gaara stepped forward. "You have demonstrated that you are capable of prioritizing between the battle and protecting the civilians by pointing out their distress to your team leader. You were instrumental in the defense of the village in a time of war and have saved the lives of many children that were separated from their parents during the battle. Your quick thinking when the building came down, using your sand to protect those that were the way of it's fall, saved many lives. For that, you have been promoted to Chuunin. Serve your village well."

"Eh?" Kankuro mutter in confusion as Gaara accepted the vest. "What children? I don't remember seeing any children on the streets."

"Baka! That's because Gaara used his sand to get them to the Konoha Chuunin that were looking for them in the alleys!" Temari growled at her brother. "How did you miss that?!"

"Sabaku no Kankuro," Sarutobi looked amused. "Like your siblings, you have shown great foresight in a time of war. You have also been promoted to Chuunin." Kankuro accepted the flak jacket with only mild embarrassment.

"Uzumaki Naruto! Uchiha Sasuke! Haruno Sakura!" Sarutobi called out, grinning at the show of confusion. The other three promotions had been down separately. "You were promoted during the second exam, but asked to keep it a secret as to continue in the Chuunin Exams without much question, therefore the official promotion will be held now. Team 7 successfully escaped the Sannin, Orochimaru, and alerted the village to his presence a month in advance which allowed us to gain the upper hand in the invasion. Not only that, your team alerted us to a potential spy within our ranks that we successfully captured and detained. You led what you thought to be an S-Ranked criminal away from the village and managed to find information that greatly benefited our village. We have regained Uchiha Itachi. You three our promoted to Chuunin, continue to serve your village well!"

The three stepped forward with wide grins, accepting the flak jackets with little fuss.

"Nara Shikamaru!" Sarutobi called. "You showed great tactics and above genin skill in the face of battle. You showed the knowledge of when it's best to give up and when it's best to fight to the end, preserving your chakra for the invasion. You have been promoted to Chuunin. Serve your village well."

Shikamaru sighed, but stood and accepted the flak jacket.

"So concludes our promotions. Many of you have shown great skill and talent in these exams, however you have also shown yourselves to be unready for the responsibilities that come with leading a team. Hyuuga Neji, you allow yourself to be clouded by the past and would put your team in danger. You do not qualify for the mental health requirements that are made for this exam. Tenten, you showed great skill but little tactic against a opponent ill suited for your own style. You did not qualify for Chuunin. Rock Lee, you showed much skill but you become to focused on the opponent and not your surroundings or your mission. You caused much damage during the invasion and nearly caused a building to crush several civilians. You are not yet qualified to become a Chuunin."

Lee looked horrified at that, crocodile tears running from his eyes.

"Yamanaka Ino, you are not nearly skilled enough to become a Chuunin." Sarutobi knew that this wasn't going to be kind but it had to be done. "You are too focused on boys and your looks and not enough on your skills. Frankly, you shouldn't have even been in the exams and if not for your other two teammates, I wouldn't have allowed it." Ino looked mortified. "Akamichi Choji, you showed much skill but you must not let you rage blind you. Until you get a hold of your temper, you cannot become a Chuunin." Choji looked somewhat abashed.

"Aburame Shino, you showed skill with your clan jutsu but little else. No tactics or taijutsu or even other ninjutsu. With that little knowledge we cannot justify passing you." Shino nodded solemnly. "The same with you, Inuzuka Kiba. You showed basic Academy taijutsu and only clan ninjutsu. You cannot be passed with such pitiful knowledge." Kiba turn scarlet with embarrassment. "Hyuuga Hinata, you showed great skill, above genin level, but you lack confidence and that will get you team killed in the battle field. You are easily unbalanced and that is dangerous for a Chuunin. Therefore, you cannot be passed."

Hinata nodded, frowning.  _'Great skill? Above genin?'_  She had much to think about.

"You are all dismissed! The newly minted Chuunin should report here for assignments tomorrow morning!" Sarutobi felt glee fill him. Genin's had it easy but once you hit Chuunin, the real hard work began.

The newly minted Chuunin vanished, the Suna trio getting ready to head back to Suna with their sensei, while the Konoha Chuunin were to meet with their sensei for the traditional parting gift. While Konoha wasn't known for their sensei's abandoning their genin after promotion, the parting gift was more of a sign that they were proud of their accomplishment and looked forward to working with them in the future. Kakashi had been holding back on the gift until they were officially Chuunin in the eyes of the village and not just the Hokage and a select few.

 _'Assignments will be...interesting.'_  Hiruzen thought to himself as his office cleared.  _'Very, very, interesting.'_


	12. Notice

The rewrite for Sightless Eyes has been posted under the name Behind Unseeing Eyes. As of now, Sightless Eyes will be listed as complete. 

Hope you all like the rewrite!

~MisteryMaiden~


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